first female president of south koreafirst female president of south korea

She campaigned as a figure of unity and promised to address the countrys stark income disparities. That people are out of work, that young people out of college are unable to find work, employment and so forth.. As an unmarried woman with no children coming from a political dynasty, Park showed how a different combination of family, class, gender, marital, and parental backgrounds enabled or prohibited voters from identifying with her as a leader. VideoThe surprising benefits of breaking up, Presenter photo claims are clear crisis for BBC. None of the groups listed specific women-related policies when asked what they considered her administrations policy successes. When a female leader ends her career in a controversial fashion, how does that affect voters perceptions of women as effective political leaders? But South Koreans credit him for laying the foundations of Korea's economic development following the Korean War. Scandals in the party can open a window of opportunity for women to move up the party leadership ladder and be elected (Beckwith Reference Beckwith2015; Thomas Reference Thomas2018), but many women are mired in corruption allegations themselves during or after their tenure, as in the case of Benazir Bhutto (Chu Reference Chu2007; Crossette Reference Crossette1996), Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner (Tegel Reference Tegel2019), and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Ford Reference Ford2018). Table 2. One participant mentioned, Probably she picked up something from watching her father (CMRally, Participant #4). "coreDisableEcommerceForArticlePurchase": false, Given that Park emphasized her status as a dutiful daughter of her father more than her status as a womens representative, voters weak acknowledgment of her contribution to gender equality should not come as surprise. There, in Wednesdays presidential election, the New Frontier Party of incumbent President Lee Myung-bak clung to power by a slim margin. Park Geun-hye becomes South Korea's first female president Park Geun Hye | bbc.com Park Geun Hye served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013-2017. Abstract and Figures. Of the 30 in-person participants, 25 people wrote words or phrases related to Parks father, such as the first daughter, the acting first lady (she served as the first lady when her mother was assassinated), the princess, and a hothouse flower, suggesting that she lived a sheltered life as the daughter of the president. What is South Korea's presidential scandal? I designed and conducted an online survey of eligible voters in South Korea from May 20 to 25, 2020.Footnote The election was a hard-fought race for a country deeply split along ideological and generational lines. First lady attends opening of 'women entrepreneurs week' - The Korea Times [1][2][3][4][5][6] The KPG was established in 1919 as a government in exile in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of Korea. As recently as October 2021, South Koreans rated Park Chung-hee as the best president in the countrys history, according to a Gallup Korea (2021b) poll. Those who attributed Parks gender to her impeachment were more likely to see Parks failure as a barrier to other womens political careers. Render date: 2023-07-07T15:31:45.979Z Barrier hypothesis: Those who attribute Parks impeachment to her gender hold a pessimistic view of other womens odds of political advancement. In 2021, former president Moon Jae In pardoned Park Geun Hyes sentence because of her deteriorating health and to overcome unfortunate past history, promote peoples unity and join hands for the future.. By waiting three years after the impeachment to run the survey and focus groups, this study obtains valuable insight into how voters remember and evaluate Parks political legacy after the initial shock of the impeachment subsided. OLS regressions with survey weights (education, class self-identification, and political ideology). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. To facilitate active discussions, those who said they were not interested in politics were not invited to the panel, even though I understand that such a decision could exclude certain types of responses. Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won apologized and offered his resignation 10 days after the disaster. First, it empirically tests the supposed connection between the failure of the historic first in office and peoples belief in womens ability as political leaders. They thought Parks impeachment was unrelated to her gender but was absolutely related to her incompetency (see Appendix 3 in the Supplementary Materials). These patterns do not show a statistically significant difference by the participants ideology or gender. After reviewing the literature on descriptive and symbolic representation and the continuing importance of political dynasties regarding elections, I introduce the context of Parks election and impeachment to justify why South Korea is a suitable case to analyze the nuanced connection between descriptive and symbolic representation through an intersectional lens. Existing studies of symbolic representation do not explicitly consider the fact that many women leaders are part of the social, economic, and political elite. On December 9, 2016, more than half the legislators from her own party voted in favor of her impeachment (National Assembly Minutes 2016). 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. This article contributes to the study of gender and symbolic representation in two significant ways. Gender affinity hypothesis: Female voters evaluate the symbolic nature of Parks status as the first female president more favorably than do male voters. He emphasized the need for dialogue, for negotiations, for generous aid to North Korea. This research was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies (Project No. All Rights Reserved. In April 2014 the Park administration faced its first major challenge with the sinking of the ferry Sewol, in which more than 300 people died. Reference Gruber, Cross, Pruysers, Bale, Cross and Pilet2015). She ran on a platform of growing the economy, stating that she will expand South Koreas middle class to consist of 70 percent of the entire population. In 1998 Park ran for election to the National Assembly to represent the Talsng (Dalseong) district (Taegu region) as a candidate of the conservative Grand National Party. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association. The participants who attributed Parks election mainly to her inherited support base did not feel her election marked an improved level of democracy or womens political empowerment, nor did they feel she had an understanding of ordinary people to promote womens interests. At the same time, she is someone who really values keeping her promises. Many women leaders are part of the social, economic, and political elite. Dynastic Politics and Symbolic California State University, Sacramento, USA, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X22000538, Reference Reyes-Housholder, Schwindt-Bayer, Martin and Borrelli, Reference Alexander, Coffe, Alexander, Bolzendahl and Jalalzai, Reference Alexander, Jalalzai, Martin and Borrelli, Reference Jalalzai, Alexander, Bolzendahl and Jalalzai, Reference Dittmar, Sanbonmatsu and Carroll, Reference Beaman, Duflo, Pande and Topalova, Reference Wahman, Frantzeskakis and Yildirim, Reference Lee, Franceschet, Krook and Tan, Reference Derichs, Fleschenberg and Hstebeck, Reference Gruber, Cross, Pruysers, Bale, Cross and Pilet, Breaking the Mold: Working through Our Differences to Vocalize the Sound of Change, Change in Womens Descriptive Representation and the Belief in Womens Ability to Govern: A Virtuous Cycle, Womens Political Empowerment through Public Opinion Research: The Citizen Perspective, Measuring Womens Political Empowerment across the Globe, The Symbolic Effects of Female Heads of State and Government, The Gendered Executive: A Comparative Analysis of Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Chief Executives, Progressive Nationalism and Female Rule in Post-colonial South and Southeast Asia, Engendering Politics: The Impact of Descriptive Representation on Womens Political Engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa, Female Leadership Raises Aspirations and Educational Attainment for Girls: A Policy Experiment in India. Mr. Ko began to collect CCTV footage of Ms. Choi mistreating presidential aides and other pieces of evidence that revealed that President Park and Ms. Choi were abusing the authority of the formers title and position. April 29, 2015. T Bridge Corporation, a research consultancy specializing in focus groups located in Seoul, recruited the participants using the ARS (from the companys survey panel) and snowball-sampling recruitment via online communities. Now, like all other successful leaders who are elected in other countries, she ran on the economy. Lee Myung-bak and the conservatives in South Korea believe that Koreas alliance with the United States is absolutely essential to South Korean security. All women focus group participants, regardless of their political ideology, squarely rejected the notion that sexism played a role in her downfall. I would say the effect is the exact opposite. This trust was betrayed in the end, though. First, some voters do not have an accurate understanding of the level of womens parliamentary representation; thus, studies based on legislatures can result in inconsistent findings (Stauffer Reference Stauffer2021). Parks impeachment would make it difficult for other women to get elected as a legislator or president.. Park Geun-Hye | Biography, Facts, & Impeachment | Britannica And its because of him that his daughter came to prominence. Female prime ministers and presidents, like men, tend to have higher educational levels, are more likely to have postgraduate degrees from abroad, and are wealthier than the general public, especially compared to other women in that society (Jalalzai Reference Jalalzai2013). With the passage of some time since the tumultuous and traumatic national experience, voters have had time to reflect on Park Geun-hye and the impeachment. Apart from President Park, there is Ko Young Tae, a former Olympic gold-medalist fencer, and Choi Soon Sil, a close confidante of the president. Park Geun Hye served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013-2017. This study emphasizes the importance of adopting an intersectional approach in studying symbolic representation. Existing studies do not provide a basis for testing hypotheses, so I analyzed the focus group data inductively to observe whether the participants felt represented despite Parks dynastic connection and privileged background. Her main rival, Moon Jae-In of the centre-left Democratic United Party, was a former human rights lawyer who had been imprisoned in the 1970s for protesting against President Parks authoritarian regime. Contrary to my expectations, the responses to both questions revealed no significant gender gap. Some participants repeatedly brought up the fact that Park had never married and did not have children as the reason for her inability to represent womens interests. The participants completed a screening survey, which included questions about their age, gender identity, political ideology, place of residence, participation in pro- or anti-impeachment protests, and level of interest in politics (very, somewhat, not interested). Younger voters favored the left-leaning Moon, whereas the older voters preferred Park's conservative policy that emphasized stability. When multiple focus group participants repeatedly said Park was not a woman president, they were not questioning her gender identity. Both men and women benefit from family ties, even though the share of women tapping into family ties is higher than mens share (Jalalzai Reference Jalalzai2013). Gender, Election Campaigns, and the First Female President of South Korea Sometimes womens entry into politics even leads to a negative impact on constituents views on women in politics (Clayton Reference Clayton2015), decreases the level of womens political engagement (Liu Reference Liu2018), and undermines womens appeal as alternative candidates to the frustrating status quo (Morgan and Buice Reference Morgan and Buice2013). Examples of women being questioned for not having children are abundant, including Theresa May (Quinn Reference Quinn2019), Angela Merkel (Wiliarty Reference Wiliarty and Murray2010), Helen Clark (Trimble and Treiberg Reference Trimble, Treiberg and Murray2010), and Benazir Bhutto (Liswood Reference Liswood1995). Some studies have found a negative correlation between descriptive and symbolic representation (Esprito-Santo and Verge Reference Esprito-Santo and Verge2017; Stauffer Reference Stauffer2021). Kim formerly served as CEO of Covana Contents, a cultural contents company. Park wants an apology from North Korea, or a firm statement that the safety of South Koreans will be guaranteed if such a program were to continue. Though the president denied the allegations of corruption in court, she admitted that Ms. Choi had an inappropriate amount of access to government decision-making, including her speeches. When he came back home, he saw Ms. Choi in his house, furious that he had left the puppy alone. Im sure she will make an effort to engage with North Korea. The survey data show that conservative voters tended to acknowledge Park as a historic first, believed that she promoted women-friendly policies, and gave her credit for shattering the glass ceiling more often than did other groups in the electorate. This pattern stands in contrast with the global trend of increased openness to the idea of women as political leaders, even in countries where women leaders have exited their office amid controversy, such as Brazil, Argentina, and the United Kingdom (see Appendix 1 in the Supplementary Materials online). She graduated from Sacred Heart Girls High School (1970) and received a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Sogang University (1974). Can France prevent tensions igniting again? !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. Considering other aspects of leaders identities beyond their gender adds nuance to the link between descriptive and symbolic representation (Davidson-Schmich Reference Davidson-Schmich2011). When her mother was murdered by a North Korean gunman in 1974, Park served as first lady at the age of 22. For logistical reasons, those who lived outside the Greater Seoul Metropolitan area, which is within two hours via public transit from the meeting space, were not invited to the panel. Relations with the North remained cold during her term, and Pyongyang pressed ahead with its nuclear programme, conducting several missile launches and nuclear weapons tests. 1 salesman of the Republic of Korea" and for campaigning to bring the 2030 World Expo to the southeastern city of Busan, according to the presidential office. hasContentIssue false, Effect of Descriptive Representation on Symbolic Representation. South Korea elected its first female president on December 19, handing a slim but historic victory to conservative ruling party candidate Park Geun-Hye, daughter of the country's former military . 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Five years later, her father was assassinated. During the ceremony held at The Shilla Seoul hotel, Kim congratulated women entrepreneurs who have demonstrated their worth and capabilities to lead the country's economic growth and changes of the times, while also encouraging young women and students set to become future women entrepreneurs, the presidential office said. Park is not married, something that has raised questions in South Korea's conservative society, and is seen as a private individual. Reference Haerpfer2022), shows that South Korea is one of a few countries in which trust in women as political leaders decreased after a female president or prime minister served. On March 31 Park was arrested, and the following month she was indicted on 18 charges relating to abuse of power in her role as president. Seemingly at odds with the norms of the democratic idea of fairness, examples of dynastic politicians abound, including George W. Bush, Justin Trudeau, David Cameron, and Marine Le Pen (Smith Reference Smith2018, 3). Lessons from Asia, Gender Gaps in Political Participation in Asia, Do Government Positions Held by Women Matter? LEE: The next South Korean leader, will have, I would say, a significant, if not profound, impact on Americas North Korea policy. A survey experiment might remedy these limitations (Esprito-Santo and Verge Reference Esprito-Santo and Verge2017), but the presence of a recently impeached woman president would render it impossible to suppress the memory of the event even in an experimental setting. Women leaders become positive role models for women and girls (Beaman et al. On December 9, 2016, the National Assembly voted to impeach Park by an overwhelming margin. Published online by Cambridge University Press: The participants who mentioned that they had children at the beginning of the focus group session presented such arguments, regardless of their political ideologies. In just four years South Korea's president Park Geun-went from being a trailblazer to a figure of controversy linked to a deepening corruption scandal. The 35 participants were between the ages of 25 and 67, and each group had participants in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, except for an online focus group with liberal women in their mid-20s and early 30s (Group LW2030). The companies paid about $70 million to the two foundations, which were later revealed to be connected to Choi Soon-Sil, a close friend of Parks and the leader of a syncretic religious sect known as the Church of Eternal Life. Park Geun-hye made history Monday by becoming South Korea's first female president, pledging to secure South Korea against the threat of an increasingly hostile North Korea at the same time. The participants were selected from all provinces, except Jeju Island, whose population is less than 1% of the countrys. But Park's stance was more in line with that of the United States, and called for economic assistance only, contingent, she said, on there being "an honest dialogue on issues of mutual concern" and on North Korea giving up its nuclear ambitions. He was a general who staged a coup in 1961 and ran the country until his assassination by his intelligence chief in 1979. Mother candidates gain electoral advantages by underscoring their understanding of womens experiences (Deason, Greenlee, and Langner Reference Deason, Greenlee and Langner2014). My journal reading club membersKylee J. Britzman, Danielle Joesten Martin, and Joel Mehic-Parkerhelped me keep up to date with the gender politics literature. They inherit moral capital and become proxies for deceased or persecuted male predecessors (Derichs, Fleschenberg, and Hstebeck Reference Derichs, Fleschenberg and Hstebeck2006; Kane Reference Kane2001), promising peaceful national integration, social and economic justice, and gender equality (Amirell Reference Amirell2012). Special thanks to Minseok Jeong and Kyunghyun Ro for reviewing and correcting the focus group transcripts and collecting Korean publications. Moon came out and instead of blaming North Korea, blamed the ruling party, the current president and again billed himself as the most capable person in resolving this issue, North Koreas repeated provocations. Park also faced public protests related to her business-friendly government policieswhich were perceived as detrimental to labour and the requirement that schools use only government-approved history textbooks. About 76 percent of eligible voters went to the polls Wednesday, a higher than expected number given the freezing temperatures. Pressed by her opponents, she reluctantly apologized to the nation in September for her father's human rights abuses under his authoritarian rule.