L ast weekend, tens of thousands of women poured into the streets of Seoul for a fifth protest against hidden-camera pornography, the latest outcry against sexual harassment in South Korea.
The country's MeToo movement began in January, when female prosecutor Seo Ji-hyeon spoke out against being groped by a senior colleague. By April, accusations were launched against other high-profile men, including former presidential hopeful Ahn Hee-jung, who was charged with rape by a former secretary.
The movement has spread so far that even teenagers and junior-school students have begun to find their voices. To the outside observer, such movements may seem like a natural reaction to oppression. But for many women in a nation that ranks th out of countries in terms of gender equality according to the World Economic Forum, it signals an unprecedented change in social norms.
The inequality South Korean women have faced - and remained mostly silent about - includes having to follow fixed gender norms at home, institutionalised discrimination and sexual harassment at work, and spycam technology that compromises their safety and privacy.
These are the horror stories you hear from [older women]. Gender equality divides the generations in South Korea. South Korean women are battling inequality on many fronts, not least of which is spycam technology used to compromise their privacy and safety. Photo: AFP. Now, in South Korea's highly wired society, feminism has taken root more extensively among younger women, perhaps even more so than in neighbouring nations such as Japan and China.
