A Study on the Possibilities of Change in Korean Education Organizations for Women toward Gender Sensitivity and Equality in Education

Introduction

A significant phenomenon of the late 20^th century is that many feminine researchers (e.g., Houston, 1985; Nicholson, 1980; Martin, 1982) approached the problem of schooling from the perspective of gender sensitivity and equality. Although the idea about gender sensitivity and equality seems quite dated, it is still an important issue in studies of gender and education (e.g., Kobayashi, 2008; Mbuh, 2006; Oh, 2006; Schinzel, 2008) because gender is approached differently in different places and cultures and at different times. Our current times that passed the industrial society and moved into an information society, a sexual paradigm more befitting our times will slowly begin to take shape and secure its place (Kim, 2007). This movement realizing gender equality is being developed everywhere by overcoming a radical and critical perspective of modern schooling and improving an educational system from the gender- sensitive perspective.⁴

Concentrating on the gender-sensitive perspective to create an equal education system, it is suggested that we should understand differences of biological and social characteristics between men and women and provide education suitable for men and, in turn, education designed for women rather than uniform and undifferentiated education for both. Although these ideas can also cause another inequality in education, the educational policy or system that does not admit the difference will be a big obstacle to the realization of gender-equal education when we remember that traditional male-oriented values and standards were regarded as valid values for all people in an educational system.⁵ This is no different for the educational sector as men hold leadership positions, not only in the organizations that draw up the educational policies, but also in the schools as well; therefore, it is difficult to find gender equality between men and women in the educational sector, in either educational policies or the educational field. Insofar as women have been destined to remain within the private domain, schooling has been for the most part unnecessary for them and it is impossible to understand the gender bias of the modern school system. The exclusion of women from the educational realm harms not only women. When the educational realm embodies only male norms, it is inevitable that any women participating in it will be forced into a masculine mold (Martin, 1982, p. 116).

Furthermore, an education system influences identity formation and the socialization of the students it takes charge of during the process of socialization to enable students to adapt to society by transferring to them values, meanings and knowledge. Therefore, if the process of socialization has been carried out unequally in a modern male-oriented education paradigm through the educational system, it can be expected that abilities necessary for identity formation and social adaptation have also been developed unequally. Because this early social environment differs from, and is experienced differently by, male and female children, basic sex differences occur in personality development. Therefore, education for women should not be simply inserted into the existing masculine education system for an educational system approached from a gender-sensitive perspective, so it is necessary that the educational values and standards of gender equality should be newly applied.

Efforts for the practice of gender-equal education could begin through various strategies, but, first of all, it seems that changing Korean women’s education organizations should be a starting point. In order to achieve gender-equal education, not only the educational participants in the educational field, but also the policy makers in charge of establishing the educational policies and educational system must have the change of consciousness and the will to implement on gender sensitivity, or else, all of the efforts put into realizing gender-equal education will end up only as empty rhetoric. The consciousness of gender sensitivity accumulated could change the educational policies, but this method is inefficient in terms of time and money spent. Thus, since political change from the top can be a shortcut to the practice of gender-equal education, it is necessary to make the effort for educational policy makers and the upper educational organizations to establish the value of gender sensitivity.

Especially, the formation of an educational environment suitable for psychological and social characteristics of female students and female teachers is necessary to update traditional paternal education organizations. It is thought that women’s education organizations incorporating a gender- sensitive perspective is most important. When the activity objectives of women’s education organizations are established from a gender-sensitive perspective and women’s education organizations have authority to practice that perspective in education fields, the educational activity coincident with the established purpose of the women’s education organizations could be expected.

As mentioned above, though there are various efforts to develop gender- equal educational systems, systematic and political support for practice of gender sensitivity and equality in education is still insufficient in spite of this series of changes in consciousness and social necessity. The purpose of this paper is to explore how to practice gender sensitivity and equality in the Korean education system through change within women’s education organizations. To investigate the possibilities of change in the Korean educational organization for women toward gender sensitivity and equality, this study will discuss the necessity of gender-sensitive and equal education, examine and compare three kinds of current systems in Korean women’s educational organizations, and suggest alternative directions for the practice of gender-sensitive and gender-equal education in Korea.

The Necessity of Gender Sensitivity and Equality in Education

The concept of gender sensitivity was suggested by J. Martin (1982), which refers to the impact on the life of men and women as a result of the physical and social differences between men and women, and it means the recognition of the effect on each gender due to the society defining men and women differently. A gender-sensitive perspective recommends that we pay attention to gender when it can prevent sex bias or further sex equality. A gender-sensitive perspective is a situational strategy, one that lets the patterns of discrimination themselves determine which particular action to take to eliminate bias (Houston, 1985, p. 131).⁶

A schooling system has systematic aspects more advantageous to men than women from the gender-sensitive perspective, but the necessity for a system that favors women is stressed instead of being denied. In this regard, some of the educational programs which were provided only for one gender, such as the girl students (female teachers) or the boy students (male teachers), has been regarded as the appropriate educational activities for developing the character and ability of women or men, and there has been the problem of not recognizing the need or necessity to implement separate policies for realizing gender equality in the educational sector properly.

Since the school system is a public domain, it has the responsibility of reflecting the experiences, characteristics, conditions and requests of the women who are different from the men. In order to achieve equality between men and women in education fields, it is necessary to have political efforts for recognizing the differences between men and women and establishing a different educational policy. It is the aim of gender equality to make the “discriminatory” social structures a topic of discussion and to change them. In this context, gender equality as well as the promotion of complete integration of women and men into society is the primary objective (Wiepcke, Mittelstaedt & Liening, 2008). From its approach, gender sensitivity and equality is in accordance with the idea of cross-sectional politics, that is, the establishment of equal opportunities for women and men is only possible if this is a goal in all areas of politics.

However, Korean education organizations were managed as a system of powerful centralized authoritarian rule ranging from primary and middle schools to advanced education until now. Recognizing that all boy and girl students are beneficiaries of equal policies was diffused by establishing and executing almost all educational policies for general students regardless of gender. Although it seems that all students receive equal education through the provision of textbooks and educational programs as well as educational processes to all students equally without distinction between men and women, the male-oriented gender bias still exists in the education system.

Table 1 and Table 2 show evidence of increases in numbers in regarding women in education and labor market in Korea during several decades. Although it seems that we have achieved gender equality in education and economic sectors, there is still inequality and significant gap in educational attainment and economic participation rate between men and women.

Table 1

Population 15 years and over by Educational Attainment/ by Gender(in thousands)

Table 2

Economically active population of sex and sex ratio (in millions)

Oh (2006) also emphasized that having similar percentages of female and male students in all levels of higher education system does not necessarily mean that we have solved all gender related issues and problems in education. Moreover, the strong influence of Confucian values still remains in the school curriculum and in educational practice in Korea. For example, the appearance of a systematic education for women in the 1920s~1930s built an image of educated women, the ‘insufficiency’ of women was stressed by comparing the educated women with men, and educated people reinforced the men’s boundary more (Lee, 2001). The duplicity of gender such as the different educational philosophy and objective between men and women and the difference in the educational opportunity between men and women continued to be strong until 2000. Huh (2004) also suggested that differentiation in education and school activities of each gender are carried out through the hidden curriculum in the school. In addition, the traditional femininity and masculinity has been recognized as something taken for granted or desirable educationally in the educational curriculum until now, but this can also boost male chauvinism based on a patriarchal system and the prejudice and degradation of women.

Accordingly, recognition of the differences between men and women, and preparation of educational systems and policies taking those differences into consideration, and teacher training and educational programs, etc. should be outweighed to realize gender sensitivity and gender equality in education fields. In order for women to attain equality with men in educational and economic fields, gender-unequal characteristics existing visually or invisibly in the traditional public education system should be expressed to realize gender-equal education from a gender-sensitive perspective. The systems and policies should be prepared so that the values and institutions of higher education can meet the male-oriented values that have been emphasized before as well as women’s characteristics.

An Overview of the Current Systems and Activities of the Korean Education Organizations for Women

To address the extent and limitations of gender-sensitive and gender- equal education, the current status of the female educational organizations based on the organizational objective, legal foundation, organizational structure, business target, and activity contents are investigated. Organizations included are the Potential Human Resources Policy Division (the former office in charge of women’s policies for the MEST) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (hereinafter called the MEST), the Women’s Committee of the Korean Teachers and Educational Worker’s Union (hereinafter called the KTU), and the Women’s Department of the Korean Federation of Teacher’s Associations (hereinafter called KFTA), which are acting as the main female educational institutions.

D. Comparison between the potential HR policy division, the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department

Korea’s women’s educational organizations are operated in largely two channels. One is the approach from the top to change the overall members by first changing the systems and policies of the national standard mainly through the Potential HR Policy Division of the MEST. Another channel is the practical approach from the bottom to make the effort to change the perception of the Korean people mainly through the Women’s Committee of the KTU and the Women’s Teachers Department of the KFTA.

These two kinds of approaches are for educational development and gender-equal education, but each has characteristics different from the other. The former has characteristics that are more powerful and compulsory and consume a shorter period in policy establishment and execution than the latter. Whereas in the latter, it is difficult to expect the integrated and systematic changes in the system because the changes and implementations of education take place locally. Table 3 presents comparison activities between three kinds of women’s education organizations.

As sees above, the Potential HR policy division of the MEST, the Women’s Committee of the KTU and the Women’s Teachers Department of the KFTA all have a common point that they respectively exist as a lower organization of large male-oriented education organizations. They act to solve problems related to women as a part of an organization activity by treating comprehensive education problems. In other words, the three women’s educational organizations do not have any separate positions to accommodate a person to be in charge of women’s education, but also they are inadequate in size compared to the upper organization.

Table 3

Comparison between Potential HR Policy Division, Women’s Committee of the KTU and the Women’s Teachers Department of the KFTA

Independent characteristics of the three women’s education organizations are as follows. First, all the three organizations have the same purpose - to improve women’s authority - but differences can be found in detailed organizational purposes. The purpose of the Potential HR policy division of the MEST is to develop various human resources through lifelong and vocational education, and the purpose of the Women’s Committee of the KTU is to realize gender-sensitivity at home and school, and the purpose of the Woman Teachers Department of the KFTA is to improve the position of woman teachers.

Second, each organization has a division in charge of women’s education under the upper organization. The Potential HR policy division of the MEST included in a central education and administration organization (the MEST) has political power that can establish women’s education policies and induce realization of the policies. The rights and interests of women expressed by the Potential HR policy division can be said to be concretely improving and protecting the rights and interests of woman teachers and girl students. The Potential HR policy division has authority to realize gender equality by improving the rights and interests of woman teachers and unequal structure in the education system. It is also concerned with inducing establishment and practice of educational policies for minimizing the disadvantage of girl students that can be generated inside potential education processes. Meanwhile, the KTU and the KFTA have the right to deliberate and the power to fight when the national policies are drawn up. However, the Women’s Committee exercises authority through the education and educational authority businesses, and the Women’s Teachers Department exercises authority through collective bargaining, respectively.

Third, there is a difference in the activity domain and range of each organization. The Potential HR policy division of the MEST has a wider activity range than other organizations. That is, it comprehensively deals with women’s overall problems related to the gender-equal realization of an educational field without limiting school space. Especially, as the Potential HR policy division has characteristics that are a lower organization of the government organizations, it directly involves women’s participation into various committees in the government dimension, and induces activity of various women’s committees to be connected. The Women’s Committee of the KTU actively performs organization and connection businesses for unity of female teachers so as to realize gender- sensitive education at home, at school and in society.

The Women’s Committee is making the effort to work closely with all of its 16 local branches through the integrated training activities or the internet. The Women’s Teachers Department of the KFTA also forms a close connection network with 16 local branches in order to realize the gender equality of the teaching profession society. In addition, it recently reinforced connections with each branch of the Women’s Committee of the KTU, and shares information about the gender-sensitive equation and seeks a cooperative practice method by activating connection activities between the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department.

The Limitation for Gender Sensitivity and Equality among Educational Activities of Educational Organization for Women

The Potential HR policy division of the MEST has performed various educational practices through “Major plan for activation of gender-equal education (’07.3.14)” and “Important items for promoting gender-equal education in 2007 (’07.1.25)” by considering the importance of the formation of a gender-equal culture basis in elementary, middle and high school sites and composing a cooperative committee for support of gender- equal education.

In addition, it develops and supplies superior casebooks, so as to be matched to regional situations (Chungbuk), develops advertising material for gender-equal education and advertises gender-equal teaching and learning methods through role-play (Gyeongi Province) in a regional dimension. Although practice of the gender-sensitive education of the women’s education organizations shows visual results, the three organizations have systematic, political and practical limitations in promoting and practicing gender-sensitive education.

First, the limitations of the organization can be inadequate in size. Common characteristics of Korean women’s educational organizations are that all three organizations are women’s educational organizations included in the MEST, the KTU and the KFTA. Especially, the Potential HR policy division includes women’s problems as a part in the duty allotment of the MEST. The Equity Resource Center for gender-equal realization in education is independently installed as a project center and acts under the Educational Development Center so as to support the Women’s Education Equity Act (WEEA) in the USA. Since the women’s educational organizations are installed separately and there isn’t a person appointed to be in charge of women’s education, there is the limitation that the authority of the women’s educational organizations on gender- sensitive education is not sufficient enough. Also, the current women’s educational organizations are in conflict because they have to comply with the current administration of male chauvinism, while also implementing the women’s educational policies at the same time.

Second, another systematic limitation is that a legal basis that must install the women’s educational organizations and dispose of an official in charge of women’s education is not prepared in education-related laws or laws for the local self-governing body. Women’s support acts are respectively prepared in three types of the Federal Government, the State Government, and the local self-governing body in Germany. (Ministry of Education and Human Resources, 2004).

That is, the women’s support for the Act of Article No.1 in the Gender-equal Realization Act of the Federal Government, the Act for organization of the local self-governing body of the State and Item No. 4 of Article No.6 of the Act for local self-government of the local self-governing body are prepared. Also, the Equal Position Department as a women’s jurisdiction department in Germany are respectively installed in the Federal Government, the State Government and the local self-governing body. Especially, it is regulated that a full-time official in charge of equal position is appointed in the local self-governing body of a community having more than 10,000 residents in the Act for local self-government (Item No. 4 of Article No. 6 in the Act for local self-government). The Women’s Educational Equity Act of 1994 was established in the USA with the purpose of executing effective gender-equity policies and programs at all educational levels (Ministry of Education and Human Resources, 2004). Compared to this, there isn’t any separate law for women’s education in Korea, and not only that, the organizations implementing gender-sensitive education has to follow the laws of the upper organization, such as the government and NGO; the feasibility and consistency of gender-equal education isn’t established legally. In other words, there isn’t an exclusive women’s division installed in the Korean central administration system, but also the legal foundation for regulating the direction of the women’s educational organizations are all different for the three organizations.

Third, network formation of the three organizations and connection with an upper organization are necessary to practice gender-equal education. There are cases that activities of the three women’s educational organizations sometimes collide with each other according to a business direction of the upper organization rather than agreeing. Especially, the activities of the women’s educational organizations in the local authorities should be implemented based on the network established with the local authorities’ councils and local educational authorities’ committees, but it has been inefficient in these areas.

Suggestions for Gender Sensitivity and Equality in Korean Educational Organizations for Women

Suggestions for improvement of the women’s educational organizations are made for realization of gender sensitivity and equality education based on the above-mentioned discussions, they are as follows. First, although there is systematic conflict between the MEST, the KTU and the KFTA, the Potential HR policy division, the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department have acted for the same purpose of gender equal education. However, the Potential HR policy division, the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department tend to plan different strategies through different paths corresponding to the purpose of the upper organization. Therefore, it is necessary that the three women’s educational organizations share a common aim of gender sensitivity and equality education. When the purpose of the three women’s educational organizations puts stress on expansion of a gender-sensitivity perspective and realization of the gender-equality education and is shared with each other, the driving force of the women’s educational organizations can be reinforced.

Second, the role and the authority of the three women’s educational organizations need to be characterized for diffusion of a gender-sensitivity perspective and realization of a gender-equality education. The Potential HR policy division can practice gender sensitivity from the top to the bottom, and the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department can practice gender sensitivity from the bottom to the top. In other words, the Potential HR policy division can show the authority, spreading ability and political ability that the present MEST has, and the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department can prepare a method for realizing gender sensitivity from the top to the bottom as well as from the bottom to the top through the women’s educational organizations. Various roles of the Potential HR policy division should focus on the preparation and promotion of women’s educational policies for gender sensitivity realization and gender equality education.

On the other hand, the members of the Women’s Committee of the KTU and the Women’s Teachers Department of the KFTA are mainly teachers or persons of action in educational fields and perform realistic duties in the education sites directly or indirectly, so they can suggest practical and detailed policies in the education sites. Also, since the members of the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department have a consensus on the teaching profession, an agreement on the search for practical problems and solving methods about expansion of gender sensitivity education in order that opinion collection and a collective action at a national level through branches are possible.

Thus, the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Teachers Department suggest policies necessary for realization of gender sensitivity practice and gender-equal education policies and focus on a role for expansion of the gender-sensitive perspective in classrooms and schools. During this time, the Women’s Committee educates the gender-sensitive perspective at school sites by reinforcing education and teaching authority business as women activists and performs the role sharing and expanding between teachers by holding workshops and symposiums, etc. The Women’s Teachers Department needs to reinforce the collective bargaining function to prepare a system and policies for women’s education in addition to the official system in charge of women’s education policies being promoted presently.

Third, a systematic improvement is necessary. That is, a women’s education organization is additionally installed and should show initiative for realization of gender equality in education. It is necessary that laws related to women’s education are established or the laws for the local educational self-government and the local self-government laws are revised so that the women’s education organizations act independently and the official in charge of women’s education can be appointed by obligation to each local self-government body.

Fourth, the network of women’s education organizations should be reinforced. If three women’s education organizations closely collaborate, it is easier to achieve gender equality. The KTU and the KFTA should exceed group conflict and reinforce connections with the Women’s Committee and the Woman Teachers Department. Also, the sixteen branches of the Women’s Committee and the Women Teachers Department should strengthen their network with each local authority. For this, the women’s education organizations should reinforce the network with the local self-governing body so that women’s education policies can be practiced by the local self-governing body consistently.

Concluding Remarks

The purpose of the present study is to investigate possibilities for change, in that Korean women’s education organizations move forward for gender equality education by analyzing the composition and activities of the three Korean women’s education organizations. As women’s education organizations, the Potential HR policy division of the MEST, the Women’s Committee of the KTU and the Woman Teachers Department of the KFTA have systematic and practical limitations such as an inadequate size to implement the activities, the lack of a legal foundation to establish women’s educational organizations and appoint officials to be in charge of women’s education, and the weak authority of the women’s educational organizations compared to the three upper organizations.

In conclusion, this paper makes suggestions for the Korean women’s education organizations of the future as follows. First, the three women’s education organizations should focus on expansion of gender-sensitive perspective and realization of gender equal education and share with each other. Second, the role and the authority of the three women’s education organizations should be strengthened. Third, additional women’s education organizations and legal systems should be developed. Fourth, the network of the women’s education organizations should be reinforced. Considering the fact that the educational attainment of men and women has a significant influence on many political, social and economic activities, it is necessary to provide concrete and gender-sensitive educational policies and support systems for women.

References

• Committee of the Korean Teachers and Educational Worker’s Union, http://eduhope.net (search date, 2009. 3).
• Houston, B., (1985), Should public education be gender free?. In L. Stone (Ed.) (1994), The Education Feminism Reader, Routledge, New York, p122-134.
• Huh, C. S., (2004), Hankuk gyoeukeseoui gender pyeongdeung gwa kongpyeong. Yeosung yeongue daehan gaenyeom hwakjangui pilyoseong {Gender Equality and Equity in South Korean Education: A Proposal for Conceptual Changes in Women's Studies}, Korean Journal of Sociology of Education, 14(2), p219-246.
• Kim, H. U., (2007, Why we have to talk about gender-sensitive sex education?, International symposium on visions and challenges of sex education policy for the adolescents, Sep), p1-11.
• Kobayashi, T., (2008), Empowering women by ICY towards gender equality: A case of Japan, Asian Women, 24(4), p61-88.
• Korea National Statistical Office, http://www.kostat.go.kr (search date, 2010. 3.).
• Lee, Y. M., (2001), Geundae yeosunggwa ‘gyoeukbadeun yeosung’e daehan sahuijuk geubumhwa damron {Societal Constructions of the Normalizing Discourses on Modern-Educated Women in the Early Twentieth-Century Korea}, The Journal of Korean Education, 28(1), p1-28.
• Martin, J. R., (1982), Excluding women from the educational realm. In L. Stone (Ed.) (1994), The Education Feminism Reader, Routledge, New York, p105-121.
• Mbuh, R., (2006), African women and higher education attainment in the 21^st century: The challenge continues, Asian Women, 22(1), p1-26.
• Ministry of Education and Human Resources, (2004), Study of Public Policies for Women in Germany.
• Nicholson, J. L., (1980), Women and schooling. In L. Stone (Ed.) (1994), The Education Feminism Reader, Routledge, New York, p73-83.
• Oh, J., (2006), Achievement and challenges of higher education for women in Korea, Asian Women, 22(1), p24-44.
• Partington, G., (1984), Radical feminism and the curriculum, The Salisbury Review, p4-9.
• Schinzel, B., (2008), E-Learning, gender sensitive, Asian Women, 24(4), p43-59.
• The Korean Federation of Teacher’s Associations, http://www.kfta.or.kr (search date, 2009. 3).
• The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, (2007, Jan, 25), Important items for promoting gender-equal education in 2007, The press release.
• The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, (2007, Major plan for activation of gender-equal education, The press release, Mar, 14).
• Wiepcke, C., Mittelstaedt, E., & Liening, A., (2008), Blended learning approaches to enhance gender mainstreaming, Asian Women, 24(4), p21-41.