This newfound spirit is exemplified by a recently created Facebook and Twitter user whose account name calls for the boycotting of “male majorities” and bringing to justice companies that engage in discriminatory hiring against women. (Image: Twitter Screenshot)
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The rise of South Korea’s #MeToo movement has led to the emergence of smaller campaigns looking to go on the offensive to guarantee women’s rights.
This newfound spirit is exemplified by a recently created Facebook and Twitter user whose account name calls for the boycotting of “male majorities” and bringing to justice companies that engage in discriminatory hiring against women. This account releases the names of companies where incidents of sexism have been reported and introduces women-friendly workplaces.
A tweet sent out urging a boycott of a company which was said to have engaged in sexism when dealing with female employee wages and promotions has earned 4,000 retweets. A tweet highlighting a company where employee maternity leave usage rate is 100 percent meanwhile earned 8,000 retweets.
Other women’s rights supporters are choosing the presidential Blue House’s public petitions over social media platforms to advocate change. On March 23, a petition that called for legal grounds to force fathers of an unwed mother’s children to provide child support reached 210,000 participating votes. As the petition passed the 200,000 vote limit within a month, a Blue House official is required to provide an official response.
The petition read, “Though the law does allow the child’s mother to ask the father to remit child support, those that actually do receive money amount to 4.7 percent.”
Another noticeable outgrowth of the #MeToo movement is an increase in the number of women seeking out lectures and groups discussing feminism.
Choi, a 32-year old office worker, is one of these individuals who is looking to understand feminism on a deeper level. Though she does not want to call herself a feminist, she nonetheless expressed a need to understand the ideology better.
Choi said, “I learned what types of prejudice I had suffered that I was oblivious to. And to break that down, I thought I would have be very clearheaded about such things.”
Another noticeable outgrowth of the #MeToo movement is an increase in the number of women seeking out lectures and groups discussing feminism. (Image: Yonhap)
S.B.W. (sbw266@koreabizwire.com)
