South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has defended his plan to abolish the country’s gender equality ministry, insisting it will lead to an improvement in women’s rights.
Yoon, a conservative who took office in May, is expected to encounter fierce opposition to the move, which will have to be approved by the national assembly, where the liberal opposition Democratic party has a majority.
Yoon has accused the ministry of treating men like “potential sex criminals” and promised to introduce tougher penalties for false claims of sexual assault – a step campaigners say will deter even more women from coming forward.
On Friday, he attempted to dismiss fears that abolishing the ministry would set back the cause of women’s rights in South Korea as it struggles to address its poor record on gender equality.
“Abolishing the gender ministry is about strengthening the protection of women, families, children and the socially weak,” he told reporters, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Yoon defeated his liberal opponent, Lee Jae-myung, with strong support among young “anti-feminist” men who believed their grievances were being ignored by a new focus on gender issues generated by the #MeToo movement.
While there have been modest improvements in women’s rights – including the decriminalisation of abortion in early 2021 and better enrolment rates in higher education – South Korea has the highest gender wage gap among OECD countries, with women paid on average a third less than their male counterparts.
Women are poorly represented in boardrooms and in the national assembly, while campaigners have demanded authorities take action against an epidemic of spy cam crime, known as molka.
The 2022 World Economic Forum global gender gap report ranks South Korea 99th out of 146 countries in an index that examines jobs, education, health and political representation.
In September, the government faced calls to strengthen punishments for stalkers after a woman was murdered at work by a male ex-colleague who had been stalking her for three years.
The interior and safety minister, Lee Sang-min, said this week that government policies should aim to secure equal rights for both men and women, and criticised the current focus on inequality experienced by women.
Lee said the gender ministry’s duties would be shifted to the health and employment ministries, adding that the government planned to establish a new agency in charge of population, family and gender equality issues.
Democratic party MPs said the ministry’s abolition would undermine South Korea’s commitment to gender equality.
“It is obvious that government programmes related to family, youth and gender equality that the gender ministry has been in charge of will be reduced,” they said in a statement. “It is time to strengthen the gender ministry’s role and function, not weaken them.”
The Korea Times accused Yoon and his conservative People Power party of “taking advantage of the gender divide for political gain” by keeping his campaign promise to abolish the ministry.
Calling on Yoon to rethink his “ill-conceived plan”, the newspaper said the move could “do more harm than good” and “goes against the global trend of advocating women’s empowerment”.
