국회와 양성평등의 문제
National Assembly and Gender Equality
The Path Towards Gender Equality in the Korean National Assembly
The members of the National Assembly in Korean society are held in high regard. Even within this group of exclusive individuals, people pay much greater attention to female lawmakers than their male counterparts. Because female lawmakers are so scarce, their roles are increasingly critical in Korea. As Korea is a leading democratic country in Asia, female legislators gather in the National Assembly to represent all the women in this country and devise national policies in their interests. Despite recent efforts to improve representation within Korea's legislation, females hold only a mere thirty percent of all the National Assembly seats. To encourage women to speak up, I would like to suggest, in this article, ways to increase the number of female lawmakers in Korea.
First, women's organizational behavior should be strengthened. Solidarity and collective action among members is essential to empower relatively weak voices to speak out. The formation of an organization is not only a structure that can further designate the representative but also a reminder for members to focus on "why our representative is important to us." The right to collective action is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, but women have not yet had enough representation within historically organized groups to act on behalf of. Therefore, the importance of the representative who works on behalf of women in Korea has not been emphasized.
Second, establishing friendly relations with opponents. It is mandatory to audit the national budget and laws based on gender sensitivity assessment policies in Korea. Despite the apparent procedures, this is not being followed within the actual screening practices. For this to be observed, monitoring by the incumbent lawmakers is critical. But so far, only a handful of female lawmakers have shown their interest in legislative works with the gender sensitivity assessment, as the issue has been regarded as a minority's matter. To overcome the situation, female legislators should build alliances with the dominant male representatives to increase the balanced legislative process's importance with the gender sensitivity assessment. It allows gender sensitivity to become a significant matter for legislators to manage.
In conclusion, increasing the number of female legislators at the National Assembly is a priority for two main reasons. First, organizational behavior optimizes the ability to speak up. Second, increasing allyship with male representatives allows the opportunity to negotiate and focus on more women-centric policies. Overall, both optimize the representation of half of the Korean population in a space that affects people's lives at a high level.
