Yoon's plans for Gender Ministry are up in the air

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Yoon's plans for Gender Ministry are up in the air

In a press conference held near the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Monday, a coalition of women’s groups urge President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to follow through on his campaign promise to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. [YONHAP]

In a press conference held near the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Monday, a coalition of women’s groups urge President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to follow through on his campaign promise to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. [YONHAP]

The head of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team said the campaign pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has "not been scrapped," but refused to specify whether the ministry would be allowed to live on. 
 
When asked by reporters during a press conference Monday whether Yoon was serious about getting rid of the ministry, Ahn Cheol-soo said Yoon would choose from several "feasible policy directions" reported to him by his aides.
 
The ministry, which is supposed to advance women’s rights, has been accused by some men and even some women's civic groups of intensifying gender rifts. Anti-feminists call the ministry’s very existence “reverse discrimination,” saying women shouldn’t be entitled to "special treatment."
 
Some feminist groups argue that the ministry is needed to oversee the protection of women against sexual violence and to educate the public on gender equality.
 
During the presidential campaign, Yoon promised to abolish the ministry, a move that political pundits saw as a gambit to appeal to young male voters in their 20s and 30s.
 
The tactic worked: 58.7 percent of male voters in their 20s and 52.8 percent of male voters in their 30s supported Yoon, according to exit polls commissioned by the country's three terrestrial broadcasters – KBS, MBC and SBS – while ruling Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung got 58 percent of votes from women in their 20s and 49.7 percent from women in their 30s.
  
Ahn's comment Monday reflected a slow-burning backlash to Yoon's campaign pledge to abolish the ministry. 
 
A coalition of 47 women’s civic rights groups held a press conference near the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Monday, saying the ministry was “stoking feminism and wasting taxpayers’ money.”
 
A coalition of 120 women’s groups, on the other hand, said scrapping the ministry would intensify discrimination and violence against women and social minorities, adding that in order to create a government where gender equality is upheld, even more power would need to be shifted to the ministry.
 
Public views are similarly split.
 
“It’s preposterous to abolish a ministry that’s responsible for enhancing women’s rights and protecting the socially weak,” said a woman in her 30s interviewed by the JoongAng Ilbo, who asked not to be named.
 
A 35-year-old man surnamed Ryu, however, thought differently.
 
“I think it would be more efficient to transfer each function of the ministry to other ministries and then shut the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family down,” said Ryu. 

BY LEE SUNG-EUN, NA UN-CHAE [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]
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