March 8th, 2018
Happy International Women’s Day! Dear Sisters!
Cr. for all the Jung II-woo photos: Newsen and The Daily Focus, March 2012.
Jung II-woo loves women… he shows us his love with his dramas, with the special way he always treats fans and the women in his life: his mom and sister… and maybe his girlfriend?
Do you know how lucky you are? You have internet access this means that you are more likely have resources to learn and therefore be educated in skills that can potentially make your life better. These are some facts I found in various websites…all with credited sources right after (See websites.)
Notes on the Status of Women in the World
“Most of the 3.9 billion people not connected to the internet tend to be poorer, less educated and RURAL WOMEN AND GIRLS.”
Cr. www.unwomen.org
“Every 90 seconds, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. Most of these deaths are preventable, but due to gender-based discrimination many women are not given the proper education or care they need.”
“As many as 1 in 4 women experience physical or sexual violence during pregnancy. Take a stand and collect cell phones to benefit domestic violence programs.”
“Women make up 80% of all refugees and displaced people. Instruments of genocide such as sexual violence and rape are often directed at women and girls.”
Feeling a bit luckier? … I am! But we still have such a way to go…
Notes on the Status of Women in South Korea
I decided to do a little investigating into what the status of women in South Korea. And what I found was some really hard to digest information.
Women in South Korea have a strong start into the the job world… as there is are more women attending universities then men and the men have to do their military service. However there is a lot of discrimination and women can’t aspire in many cases to the positions occupied traditionally by men. Many companies choose not to hire women, especially when married as they foresee the “interruptions’ of child bearing activities in their future.
“According to The Korea Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) figures from July 2016, 52.7 percent of working-aged Korean women (aged 15 and older) participate in the workforce!!! That’s only 50% of the women!
Korean women comprise 19.4 percent of lawyers, 23.9 percent of doctors, and 23 percent of university professors. The discrepancy is even more pronounced in terms of leadership positions. The Wall Street Journal reports that of the 1,787 companies listed on South Korea’s stock exchange, only 13 are headed by female CEOs (and four of those women are directly related to the companies’ founding families). Women occupy only 8.8 percent of senior civil service positions, which is notable because in 2015, 46 percent of those who passed the civil service exam were women.” Cr. The Diplomat
Graphic Cr. The Wall Street Journal
“Compared to other OECD countries, South Korea’s female suicide rate is highest with 15.0 deaths by suicide per 100,000 deaths according to the suicidal rate list, while the male suicide rate is third highest with 32.5 per every 100,000 deaths.” (OECD is an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development of currently 35 countries from all over the world.)” Cr. Wikipedia
Cr. World Health Organization
As I study Korean Culture more and more, its shiny cover is pretty much gone… there is a lot of women (and men) suffering in this country. Sadly…
Status of Women in the USA
Here in the United States, we women are doing better in general, but still…there are some incredible gaps between the life a woman can lead when compared to that of a man in general. When I learned some of these figures I was so sickened and disgusted! Take a look at this:
The harassment girls and women have to endure to become educated in this country… and this doesn’t include the university years! Then once you survive this, this is what you end up with:
Isn’t this just great?!!! Arghhhhhhh! And even though we were becoming stronger in the work force peaking at 61% at one point, now there is a diminishing trend…
“Over the past half century, women (in the USA) have made substantial progress in the labor market. Between 1962 and 2000, women’s labor force participation—defined as the percentage of women ages 16 and older either working or actively looking for work—increased dramatically, from 37 percent to 61 percent, leading to economic gains of an estimated $2 trillion.
However, beginning in 2000, the positive trend slowed and even reversed: women’s participation fell from 60.7 percent in 2000 to 57.2 percent in 2016. According to Sandra E. Black, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Audrey Breitwieser, this pattern persists across women of varying races and ethnicities, educational backgrounds, ages, and marital statuses, and for women with and without children alike.” Cr. www.brookings.edu
One of the detriments to women being able to stay in the labor market here in the USA is the lack of access to child care and paid family leave.
“The U.S. is the only industrialized country without a national paid leave policy for mothers.
Despite research that indicates that providing paid parental leaving following the birth of a child provides significant labor market and health benefits, the United States is the only industrialized country without a national policy providing mothers with rights to paid leave following the birth of a child.” Cr. www.brookings.edu
Yeah… it’s pretty appalling! All that we endure…all we do…and we still need a International Woman’s Day! Seriously! Our day is every single day of our lives!!! OK… I need to calm down…
Well that helps …a little! But This Women’s Day is to speak our minds! To scream THIS IS SO UNFAIR!!!
So let’s go Women! Girls! There are things happening all over the world around International Woman’s Day! THIS is the official International Women’s Day Website, you can see what is being done in your country. You can do a search by country…
And of course I had to include this… one of the clearest voices we have today:
Woman! If not me…who? If not now…when?
These are all the photos in their original color! Dear sisters enjoy Jung II-woo … and dream of a man that values you and loves you for every bit that you are!!!
WITAT (What I think about this.)
Ha…I think I expressed my feelings a lot up top…but this is more personal stuff…
My mom gave me the best gift, her mom gave her as well: EDUCATION. My grandmother (Venezuelan) was a young mom at the age of 15. She had 6 children and to all of them but especially her 4 girls she would say “Estudie hija mia, para que usted no tenga que depender de nadie, y pueda hacer lo que usted quiera de su vida!” Which translates to “Study daughter of mine, so you can make of your life what you want and not have to depend on anyone.” She only studied until 6th grade. Luckily for me, my mom listened and my mom not only was the only one to attend college in her family, but she even went on to earn a master’s degree! She sure made my grandmother proud!
So my mom’s expectations for me and my sister were very high, she pushed us so hard! Now I understand why… And this is my recommendation to any young woman reading this… STUDY! as my mom said to me: “Love can wait until you are educated and have a career…and just in case Love doesn’t work out then you can have a career that gives direction and meaning to your life… and most importantly economic freedom.”
I’m glad I listened too… Now I hope my little twin nieces hear my sister!
I guess I’ll be spending a very white Woman’s Day at home… they have closed all schools in the Boston area and vicinity, as we have another huge snow storm coming… in some areas they are predicting 2 feet of snow…that’s 60cms!!!
But I’ll wear something purple!!! The color purple represents Justice and Dignity for all women around this world. And I plan on marching on March 24th along with students in “The March of Our Lives.” But I’ll leave this topic for another day… I need to catch some zzzzzzzzzz!