#2 Park Geun-Hye Becomes The First Female President Of South Korea, But Will Change Really Come?

One Wednesday, December 19, something revolutionary happened. South Korea, a country built upon a patriarchal society that still views a woman's most important job as being a housewife, has elected their first female president, Park Geun-hye. Guen-hye, who is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, beat out a former human rights activist lawyer by the name of Moon Jae-in through her conservative platform that swore to mend the damage caused father's authoritarian rule, as well as the economy. Though the election of a woman into such a high position does appear to indicate the coming of equality, it will be interesting to see if Guen-hye actually creates any legislation to give women rights and put them in a place of power. The majority of Guen-hyes voters were older, conservative men who were still loyal to Chung-hee. Guen-hye's win might pave the road for future steps being taken towards equality, or she might only appeal to her supporters, the male conservatives.
Guen-hye will most likely do very little for Korean women. In terms of reform, Guen-hye's focus is on economic matters rather than civil liberties. It is debatable whether or not she should use her newfound power to aid women - who earn less than the average working man and are still forced to fill the role of the average homemaker - due to the current disparity between the rich and the poor in South Korea. Gender had nothing to do with this election, though. Though the fact that a woman does now hold an extremely powerful position in a society based off of gender norms and male supremacy, Guen-hye's endgame has nothing to do with helping the women of her country. During the election, Guen-hye only referred to women as "housewives and mothers", and even said that she could "train" them to work. Though this could just be an appeal to the common view held by men in the society, as a woman she could have done more in order to change the society's views on women. That is not to say that Guen-hye hates women or feels that they must be powerless, but the question stems from whether Guen-hye will assert this new power in order to create civil change, or if having a woman in a powerful position can even create any change.
As a woman myself, it is quite upsetting to see a country whose view towards gender is stuck in the past. Especially in relation to America, where women's rights at least has awareness, one can only imagine how restrictive the society in South Korea is towards women. The election of a woman may be the thing that brings about radical change, though. Having a positive and powerful female role model will most certainly improve the attitudes of Koreans and display that a woman can get to power through strength and intelligence. It will take a lot of work to change the view towards women in such a constricting society though, and if the issue of women's rights is never acknowledged, the election of Guen-hye will bring minimal reform in relation to women.


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"Ex-Dictator's Daughter Elected President as South Korea Rejects Sharp Change." The NY Times. The New York Times Company. 19 December 2012. Web. 20 December 2012.