KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Research on the Measures to Strengthen the Effectiveness of Women and Family-Related Legislations (Ⅲ): Legislative Tasks Concerning Women and Family for 2015

 

Bok-soon Park
Hyo-jin Song
Mi-young Gu
Soo-wan Kim
Hye-kyung Yoo

Legislation related to women and family has developed at a very fast pace in Korea, and various legislative measures are being implemented for the reinforcement of policies concerning gender equality. Despite all these, no major changes are visible in reality for women. On the contrary, job insecurity and economic inequality, issues women in Korea experience, are deepening, and they are living in a society where the occurrence of sexual violence or sexual harrassment can be found in everyday news. Such a gap between law and reality, inversely,

constitutes the reason why law and system are necessary. The problem is to build a structure where constant efforts to narrow the gap between law and reality can be made. Under the circumstances, this institute has been carrying out a 10-year research project from 2013 for the purpose of uplifting the effectiveness of legislation through gender-sensitive support of legislative activities in the Parliament, including enactment and amendment relevant to women and family.

The purpose of this research is to discover legislative tasks concerning women and family on a steady basis, and thus support gender-sensitive legislative activities of the National Assembly, etc. In this context, with the convening of the next National Assembly in 2016, in an effort to make our researches go along with the schedule of Parliamentary activities, we wanted to evaluate how legislative tasks suggested based on the researches of this institute has been reflected, and determine the remaining tasks. The subjects of analysis are “Legislative tasks concerning women and family for the 19th National Assembly” suggested as an occasional task of this institute at the convening of the 19th National Assembly in 2012, and the legislative tasks suggested on the first year (2013) and the second year (2014) of this research project. The legislation prepared based on those suggestions can be divided into the following six realms: work-family balance assistance, social security, family, violence against women, gender equality and enhancement of women’s representation, and women’s health. Major contents of each realm are as follows:

Legislative activities in the realm of ‘work-family balance assistance’ was evaluated by classifying legislative tasks suggested during the last three years into five categories, which are rectification of differentiation against female temporary workers and securing their right to work, assistance for gender-equal balance between work and family, protection of the right to work of care-giving workers, strengthening women’s representation and dispute settlement procedure at workplace, and enhancement of effectiveness of remedy for victims of sexual harrassment. Thereafter, legislative tasks for 2015 were suggested as follows: improvement in the period of paternity leave and hours of prenatal diagnosis designed to promote men’s participation in caregiving, protection of social service workers, including child caregivers, and protection of victims of sexual harrassment perpetrated by customers, etc.

As to the realm of ‘social security,’ the legislative activities were evaluated by classifying the legislative tasks suggested in the past three years into the three categories of strengthening the social security rights of female temporary workers, strengthening women’s right to receive survivor’s annuity of national pension, and expansion of publicness of long-term care insurance. Thereafter, legislative tasks for 2015 were suggested as follows: alteration of concept of average income in occupational health and safety insurance, expansion of the recipients of Durunuri social insurance subsidy project, payment of maternal benefits for occupational disaster inflicted during pregnancy, reinforcement of accessibility of employment insurance by part-time workers, improvement of childbirth credit system, etc.

Legislative activities in the realm concerning ‘family’ was evaluated by classifying the legislative tasks suggested in the past three years into two categories of civil law and its adjective law, and family policy and relevant laws concerning family support. Thereafter, legislative tasks for 2015 were suggested as follows: future permission of division of severance pay and retirement annuity, and amendment of regulations concerning division of pension, including the National Pension Act, in accordance with the amendment of the Public Officials Pension Act, preparation of countermeasures on policy and legal level, after the abolition of the punishment for adultery, adjustment of regulations concerning presumption of paternity, preparation of legal foundation for strengthening social child care, etc.

About the realm of ‘violence against women,’ the legislative activities were evaluated by classifying the legislative tasks suggested in the past three years into four categories of sexual violence, domestic violence, prostitution, and stalking. Thereafter, legislative tasks for 2015 were suggested as follows: new insertion of article concerning the payment of compensation for violence between relatives, new insertion of article concerning the punishment of coercion of agreement in cases of sex crimes, reinforcement of restrictions against violation of temporary emergency measures and temporary measures, etc.

Legislative activities regarding the realm of ‘gender equality and enhancement of women’s representation’ were evaluated by classifying the legislative tasks suggested during the past three years into two categories of strengthening gender equality policies, and enhancement of women’s representation in political, administrative, and economic fields. Thereafter, legislative tasks for 2015 were suggested as follows: enactment of laws concerning prohibition of sexual discrimination and sexual harrassment and remedy for violation of private right, rearrangement of relevant laws and regulations for the promotion of gender-sensitive policies, and rearrangement of relevant laws and regulations for the enhancement of women’s representation, etc.

Legislative activities in the realm of ‘women’s health’ was evaluated by classifying the legislative tasks suggested during the past three years into the two categories of discussion on abortion and birth control, and reinforcement of support for pregnancy and childbirth. Thereafter, as a legislative task for 2015, preparation of legal foundation to secure the right to health that reflects characteristics all through the life cycle of each gender was suggested.