"Ministry of Gender Equality & Family promises to make equality in society."
This sentence was proposed by the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family (MOGEF), formerly the Ministry of Gender Equality (MOGE) before government structure reorganization last year. On the surface, the statement means that MOGEF will work hard for equality in Korea, so Korean society definitely needs this pledge to be upheld. Early in 2000, former president Dae-Jung Kim created MOGE. At that time, his decision gave Korean society as well as politics a huge shock because there was no country with a specific government division for women. From that time when MOGE, the predecessor of MOGEF was established up to now, there have been many debates about whether to continue or stop its operation. Its existence had already been defined by itself as guaranteing the rights of females under relative discrimination by men. That is why today's MOGEF has been under scrutiny for a long time. There is no central administrative agency for men, meaning that this can be viwed as reverse discrimination, and some people say that it will only aggravate the situation if it exists in the era of globalization. The most fundamental reason is that from its launching ten years ago until now this organization has not obtained positive results in activities geared to develop equality in Korean society. Furthermore, it faced a crisis during government reorganization this year but survived abolishment thanks to the strong support of women's organizations. Despite its continuance, the issue of whether or not this organization can facilitate improvement of women's rights still remains.
This year was an unusual year in the argument for abolition of MOGEF compared with previous years. By way of illustration, the Commission on Youth Protection (a part of MOGEF) faced resistance from netizens because they judged some K-pop songs as harmful mass media for listeners under age 19 based on lyrics related to drinking and smoking in songs. Those songs did not include erotic lyrics, nevertheless some were still judged harmful. Most netizens thought this situation disturbed the spread of K-pop throughout the world. As a result of censorship, 169 songs were regarded as harmful mass media. MOGEF reformed some regulations about juvenile protection on August 29 in response to strong protests by netizens, and record deliberation was handed over to a private organization. Netizens continued to make pressing demands about the abolition of MOGEF for its activities. In the midst of protests, the minister of MOGEF made a careless remark to media regarding a controversial event for prevention of prostitution. What was worse, some people said that prevention of prostitution event could be disgraceful for Korea internationally. Netizens continue to have doubts, and many still want the organization's abolition. Some netizens have satirized MOGEF through the Internet, saying that MOGEF, in fact, disgraces women. This is why netizens demand the abolition of MOGEF.
In January, 2000, in his New Year's greeting, the former president Dae-Jung Kim said that we must prepare for the women's era because the role of women will rise in importance in the twenty-first century. However, MOGEF cannot deny that it has not performed a role as a central administrative agency in the social context. MOGEF may have even made the problem worse. For example, they allocate too much money for women's welfare rather than equality between genders. Where is the MOGEF that pledged to build an equal society through equality between the genders? Vicariously, the reality is that MOGEF just leads a movement fighting for the less important rights of women and keeps silent regarding situations of vital importance, such as the truth of sexual harassment in the work place and at school. This hypocritical approach to the women's movement is unwelcomed by the masses. People are beginning to consider this organization a badge of authority and behind-the-times icon. Indeed, the organization faces many difficulties regarding the question of continuance or abolition. Thus, MOGEF needs to present new policies for gender equality. If it fails to show progress, maybe MOGEF will not exist in Korean society in the future.