The conservative and anti-feminist Yoon Suk-yeol, who will take office in early May, had notably campaigned on the promise to abolish this ministry.
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The team of South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol backtracked on Thursday, April 7, on his campaign promise to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality. This conservative is an avowed anti-feminist and was able to mobilize young male voters on the basis of an openly misogynistic discourse, which enabled him to win the presidential election at the beginning of March.
During the campaign, he notably denied the existence of systematic and amply proven discrimination suffered by women in South Korea. He had also promised to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality, whose missions include combating domestic violence and human trafficking.
Experts had pointed out that it would be difficult to abolish this ministry altogether because it would require reforming the legislation and submitting it to a vote in Parliament, currently controlled by the Democrats. Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team finally said they would retain the ministry for the time being and appoint their own minister to head the body. The latter will be “responsible for putting a plan in place to identify problems and determine if there are measures” to reshape the institution.
“Commitment [de supprimer le ministère] is still valid”, however, promised a manager of Yook Suk-yeol’s team. He claimed that the measure was only delayed due to“differing opinions” on the best way to rebuild the institution. The Conservative president-elect is to be sworn in at the start of May.