Spray paint and protest banners cowl the partitions and pavements of Dongduk girls’s college in Seoul. “We’d fairly perish than open our doorways,” reads one slogan. Since 11 November, college students have staged a sit-in, initially occupying the primary constructing and blocking entry to classroom buildings throughout campus, forcing courses to maneuver on-line and a deliberate job truthful to be cancelled.
The outcry was sparked by plans for some departments to confess male college students however have since spiralled right into a wider conflict over the way forward for women-only areas in a rustic that’s grappling with the difficulty of gender equality.
“The college’s unilateral choice, made with none enter from the scholars who truly research and dwell right here, left us with no alternative however to boost our voices,” one member of Dongduk’s scholar council says, talking on situation of anonymity.
In South Korea, girls’s universities had been established within the early twentieth century as one of many solely paths to increased training for girls in a strictly patriarchal society.
At the moment, they’re seen by some as important establishments for nurturing feminine expertise in a rustic that is still deeply male-dominated. South Korea ranks 94th out of 146 international locations in gender equality, in accordance with the World Financial Discussion board. Girls maintain simply 20% of parliamentary seats and make up solely 7.3% of executives on the nation’s 500 largest corporations.
Yoonkyeong Nah, a professor of cultural anthropology at Yonsei College, says that, extra broadly: “The protests replicate how younger Korean girls really feel unsafe in public areas”, citing the prevalence of unlawful filming, stalking, and digital intercourse crimes, together with the most recent deepfake pornography epidemic.
“Whereas offering protected areas isn’t the first function of girls’s universities, college students are protesting to keep up what they see as a safe setting for studying – it reveals broader issues in Korean society,” Nah says.
The backlash
The outcry started after college students found the college administration had been discussing plans to transform its design and performing arts departments to turn out to be co-educational.
Directors insist co-education was solely one proposal being mentioned – citing sensible wants for male actors in performing arts and long-term competitiveness considerations.
On Thursday, a partial settlement noticed courses resume after the college agreed to quickly droop co-education discussions, however on Monday, a gathering between scholar leaders and college directors reportedly ended with out decision, with college students refusing to finish their occupation of the primary constructing till the whole withdrawal of the co-education plans.
In an announcement afterwards, college president Kim Myung-ae warned of “resolute motion” towards what she described as unlawful protests that had violated academic rights.
Because the weeks have passed by, the dispute has more and more turn out to be a political battleground.
Han Dong-hoon, chief of the ruling conservative occasion, declared that “instigators of violent incidents” should be held accountable for property harm, whereas Lee Jun-seok, one other distinguished lawmaker who has often clashed with girls’s teams, criticised the protests as “uncivilised”.
The top of a state-run human sources company urged “removing” the college’s graduates throughout hiring rounds and declared he “would by no means settle for” a daughter-in-law from the establishment.
In response, opposition politicians have accused conservatives of weaponising the protests to deflect from their very own political troubles, together with allegations of election nomination interference. Former lawmaker Jang Hye-young condemned what she known as “girls bashing” techniques and warned they solely “make life tougher for all girls in South Korea”.
“Cease utilizing us”, mentioned Choi Hyun-ah, president of Dongduk’s scholar council, in a current interview with native each day Kyunghyang Shinmun. “Those that body this as a gender battle are merely utilizing college students to justify their very own views.”
In a later assertion, the council mentioned politicians and different officers “fail to spot the essence and context of the scenario, dismissing us merely as ‘rioters’.”
The protests have additionally sparked a powerful anti-feminist backlash on-line.
The “male rights” anti-feminist group New Males’s Solidarity has weighed in. The group’s chief, lately convicted for defaming a feminist activist, has threatened to reveal the non-public data of the “rioters” on-line, prompting security considerations.
One feminine YouTuber with over 60,000 followers who voiced assist for the protesters was compelled to close down her account after allegedly dealing with sexual harassment and impersonation makes an attempt.
Within the background, a demographic disaster
The dispute additionally displays deeper structural challenges posed by South Korea’s altering demographics, says Kyuseok Kim, a better training knowledgeable and scholar.
Scholar enrolment in increased training has plunged 18% to three million college students over the previous decade because the nation’s already low birthrate continues to slip, forcing some establishments to doubtlessly shutter departments or shut totally.
“Universities face a precarious balancing act: preserving their identification whereas implementing the modifications essential to safe their future,” Kim says. “Even legacy establishments are being compelled to rethink their identities amid unprecedented demographic pressures”.
After college students overwhelmingly voted final week in favour of the protests, Choi Hyun-ah, the scholar council president mentioned: “We now have made historical past right this moment in our combat for a democratic Dongduk.
“The existence of girls’s universities is about advancing girls’s academic rights; transitioning to co-education would imply there’s no motive for us to exist in any respect.”
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