#Gender Rights and Issues
Target:
Seoul Metropolitan Government
Region:
South Korea

South Korea, holding a robust economy in Asia and on a global scale, is renown for its rapid rate of its exponential economic growth with strong commitments to production of goods, investment in human capital, and globalization. It's positive influence towards the global economy has garnered quite the light on South Korea's momentum and dynamic system of efficiency. Fortunately, those who run the economy, both women and men, are highly praised for their "hard work" (even mentioned on The Economist). Yet 57% of the female population actively participate in the workforce, discounting the discouraged workers. (check out further at: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=LFS_SEXAGE_I_R). Meaning, more than half of the females take part in the economic, political, and social contribution to the domestic status quo, yet still meets disparity in their ends and wages albeit the fact that their equates to that of what a male does in the exact same job.

This is truly a matter of privilege in a society where the belief that a man should take a more prominent role in the workforce. Mainstream media and society most often exclusively sheds light on the corporations and politics that are 99% infiltrated by men. Meaning, we do not see the rest of the working force that continually runs the economy. "The statistical increase in the quantity of employed women has not correlated with the equality of wage, as the gender wage gap reported in 2013 was 36.3%, the worst of all OECD nations present in the data." I highlight, "the worst." (cited from the actual OECD website, gender wage gap tab bar).

The Economist (2013) has published its fifth annual “glass-ceiling index”. It combines data on higher education, workforce participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications and representation in senior jobs into a single measure of where women have the best—and worst—chances of equal treatment in the workplace. Each country’s score is a weighted average of its performance on ten indicators. South Korea ranks the lowest of all OECD countries as it has the large wage gap and women make up only around 15% of government, underrepresented in management positions and on company boards. In South Korea, just 2% of corporate directors are female. Similarly, fewer women than men have completed tertiary education and are part of the labour force. --> http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/03/daily-chart-0

South Korea's focal points of gender economic disparity presents as follows,
1) Worst wage gap among OECD nations
2) 2% of corporate directors is taken up by women
3) 93% of Koreans surveyed in 2010 believe women should have equal rights to men, and among them, 71% believe more changes are needed before that goal is achieved.
4) According to UNDP Gender Inequality Index, Korea ranked 10th, higher than any Western European or North American country except the Netherlands
5) Wage Gap disparity of 36.3% (marked as "Worst out of all industrialized nations by OECD"

It is time to break down the useless glass ceiling and the discrimination on women. As a key player and influencer in the OECD nations, we hope to see South Korea's initiative will have a ripple effect towards local nations as well, as this discriminatory action is a widespread phenomenon in Asia in general.

We, the progressive drivers of our society and the undersigned, call on the Seoul Metropolitan Government to equate the wages among women and men. There is no logical, rational, moral, nor biological reasoning that proves, justifies, and defends a higher payment for a human having a biological attachment to his body other than ego and greed that drives such desire. Wage is given on work, experience, effort, and position of the individual, without any affiliation to his or her differences that unjustly place them in an invisible position in our society. Over half of working populace of South Korean economy are the females, yet it is not just nor right in any way to give them a lower payment, as they equally contribute, if not more, to the economy.

The Support Equal Wages for South Korea petition to Seoul Metropolitan Government was written by Elizabeth Lee and is in the category Gender Rights and Issues at GoPetition.