Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity (기회균등/機會均等) is an idea that all people should be treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular “distinctions can be explicitly justified.” So equal opportunity is often referred in in the area of education, employment, election, etc.

The aim of this complex and contested concept is that important jobs should go to those “most qualified” – persons most likely to perform ably in a given task – and not go to persons for arbitrary or irrelevant reasons, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, friendship ties to whoever is in power, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, or “involuntary personal attributes” such as disability, age, or sexual orientation.

Chances for advancement should be open to everybody interested such that they have “an equal chance to compete within the framework of goals and the structure of rules established.”

Key words
equal opportunity, gender equality, women, female leadership, minority

Concept of Equal Opportunity
The idea of equal opportunity is to remove arbitrariness from the selection process and base it on some pre-agreed basis of fairness, with the assessment process being related to the type of position, and emphasizing procedural and legal means.

Individuals should succeed or fail based on their own efforts and not extraneous circumstances such as having well-connected parents. It is opposed to nepotism and plays a role in whether a social structure is seen as legitimate.

In this regard, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, religion, etc. should not function as a glass ceiling or bamboo wall in the Korean society.

Gender equality
In Korea, gender equality (양성평등/兩性平等) has been stipulated by law. The competent authority is the Ministry of Equal Gender and Family (여성가족부/女性家族部), representing "equal gender" in its name and championing the so-called "gender sensitive policy" (성인지정책/性認知政策).

For instance, the Gender Equality in Employment Act was first enacted in 1987. In view of the change of workers' attitude from work-oriented to balance between work and home, and for the encouragement of women's economic activities, in 2007 the title of the Act was modified to the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation (남녀고용평등과 일가정 양립지원에 관한 법률).

In this connection, the gender equality in employment has been implemented as "30 percent of the employment target" of female applicants (양성평등채용목표제/兩性平等採用目標制) since 2003. As a result, public institutions and universities, which pioneered in such gender sensitive campaigns, were praised by the government.

Another example is the legislation of the Framework Act on Women’s Development (여성발전기본법/女性發展基本法) in 1995 as amended from time to time.

Public sector
On February 25, 2013, President Park Geun-hye was inaugurated as the first female head of state. To achieve gender equality in society at large, there needs to be an expansion of women's participation and representation in the public sector.

During her nearly two decades of political life, Park did not emphasize her female identity, perhaps in a nod to Korea's deeply patriarchal social mantra. But she came out in full stride to boost her credentials in women's rights in the 2012 presidential election. She asserted the knowledge-based society of the 21st century is an era in which how women's potential is utilized will determine the competitive edge of the nation.

Candidate Park pledged during the election campaign:
 * to create a society where women are worked and judged equally as men.
 * to implement a quota system where 30 percent of positions at bublic institutions and educational jobs would be filled by women.
 * to nurture 100 thousand female leaders by establishing a government-run academy dedicated to female leadership.
 * to expand significantly government-sponsored child care services.

Despite her promises to improve the status and opportunities available to women, many women’s rights activists, largely progressives, are critical of the former lawmaker’s legislative record on women’s issues.

Employment
Even though the labor law dictates equal opportunity in every sector of working places, it seems to have some problems related with women, migrant workers and the disabled to be solved sooner or later.

At first, Korea has yet to ratify key International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions regarding the basic rights of workers.