Gender Equality and Women's Rights in South Korea
VIEW EVENT DETAILSSouth Korea, celebrated for its economic success and vibrant culture, grapples with persistent gender equality challenges. Key issues include a substantial gender gap in labor participation, a wide gender pay gap, low political representation for women, and sexual exploitation. In response, South Korea has seen a surge in feminist thoughts and movements, highlighted by #MeToo and the 4B movements, the historic establishment of a feminist political party in 2020, and the decriminalization of abortion. While progress has been made, there is an acknowledgment of the need to continue efforts, especially in countering persisting misogynistic trends.
Join us on Thursday, March 28 for an insightful and in-depth discussion on gender equality in South Korea. We'll examine the evolution of women's rights in the country and explore effective strategies to further enhance women's rights. We'll also examine this issue in a comparative context, considering experiences in the U.S., particularly within the Korean diaspora, and other societies. Our speakers include Hawon Jung, journalist and author of Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women's Rights Worldwide; Soo Koo, Domestic Outreach Coordinator under the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy at the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the U.S. Department of State; and Grace Yoo, Executive Director of Washington State Women’s Commission.
This is a virtual, off-the-record discussion, and free for Asia Society Seattle and Asia Society Northern California members. Members, please email [email protected] if you have trouble registering. Non-members should email [email protected] for membership inquires. Registration and confirmation of registration is required. The Zoom link will be emailed to registered attendees 24 hours before the event.
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AGENDA
Date: Thursday, March 28, 2024 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Pacific
11:00 a.m. Program Begins
12:00 p.m. Program Concludes
Zoom link will be emailed to registered attendees 24 hours before the event.
SPEAKERS
Hawon Jung is a journalist and author of Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women's Rights Worldwide. As a former Seoul correspondent for Agence France-Presse, she has more than a decade of experience writing about the Korean peninsula, including military confrontations between the two Koreas and K-pop's rise on the world stage. Her coverage of South Korea’s #MeToo movement for AFP was shortlisted in the Awards for Editorial Excellence by the Society of Publishers in Asia. Her writings and commentary on women's rights issues in South Korea have been featured in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, BBC, and Al Jazeera, among others.
Soo Koo is Domestic Outreach Coordinator under the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy at the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the U.S. Department of State. Her previous role at the Bureau was the Stakeholder Engagement Officer for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) at the Office of Economic Policy.
Appointed by Governor Larry Hogan of the State of Maryland, she served as the Communications Director at the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives, the Chief of Staff for Maryland’s First Lady, and the Deputy Director at the Governor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs from 2019 to 2022. Before this, Soo was the Executive Director of the International Leadership Foundation, a national nonprofit headquartered in Washington D.C.
In 2017, recommended by a Maryland state senator, she was appointed as a public representative for the Montgomery County Community Development Advisory Committee for a two-year term by the County Executive. She is currently on the board of directors of Maryland Humanities, the state’s official humanities council.
She is a recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Award Gold in 2016 and an award from the Federal Asian Pacific American Council in 2018. In 2020, she was selected for the list of the top 40 Asian American and Pacific Islander political operatives and public affairs professionals under 40 by the National Association of Asian Pacifics in Politics and Public Affairs.
Soo received an M.A. in government from Georgetown University with Academic Distinction, a B.A. in political science from Ewha Women’s University in South Korea, and executive training at Harvard Kennedy School.
She provides multilingual services as she is fluent in Korean and speaks basic Chinese.
Grace Yoo was appointed by Governor Jay Inslee to serve as Executive Director of the Washington State Women's Commission in May 2023. Before joining the Governor's cabinet, Grace worked for Starbucks, where she led the company's efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its retail stores. Her team was recognized by President Biden's administration as part of the Federal Buy Clean initiative.
Prior to Starbucks, Grace served as a diplomat with the U.S. Foreign Service, where she covered topics such as human rights and labor issues at American embassies in China, Korea, and Germany. In her overseas consular assignments, Grace advocated for the rights of Americans incarcerated in foreign countries and assisted victims of assault returning home to the United States. She also served in several roles at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., including as an advisor to the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
Grace received a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies from UCLA and a master's degree in international and intercultural communications from American University. She speaks fluent written and spoken Korean, and has intermediate proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.
Event Details
Members, please email [email protected] if you have trouble registering.