Abolishment of Household Head System Expected by 2007

The government announced that it would abolish the Household Head system by the year of 2007.

On hand at the meeting presided by the Prime Minister Lee Han-Dong at the Central Government Complex on Sejong Ro, were Ministers of Education Human Sources, Justice, Government Administration & Home Affairs and Gender Equality The cabinet meeting was for developing policies for better women’s welfare.

Abolishment of the Household Head system will allow a divorced or remarried woman her child(ren) from previous marriage to give her surname or that of her new husband to the child(ren).

An official at the Ministry of Gender Equality explained, “The System exists only in our country. It is a symbol of male chauvinism. We have to move on, putting old legacies behind. We have discussed with other Ministries involved, and understand more than half of citizens are for our decision.”

The government also affirmed that it would strengthen its efforts to root out sex trafficking. For example, it will give 5 million won (approximately $4,500) reward to anyone who tip off crimes against women’s civil rights such as sex trafficking or kidnapping of women to make them sex slaves.

The government’s plan contains the following steps. It will conduct search, once a month, of the red-light district, and enhance its polity of making public information on the sex offenders, including their photos. Thereby, the government hopes, the sexual crime against the minors may be decreased. In the meeting, the Minister of Gender Equality reported that it would make efforts to secure 100 billion won to fund projects for women’s welfare, allocate more than 10 % of workforce in government office ranked 5th or above to women, and join the “UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” and ratify it, and fully instrument a system, under which quota is set up for employing female scientists.

Dong-Ki Sung esprit@donga.com