Gwangju City Receives 'Highest Grade' in Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's Regional Gender Equality Index Measurement Results

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 22nd that it has achieved the remarkable feat of being ranked in the "top tier" in the 2019 regional gender equality index measurement results by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

According to the regional gender equality index of 16 metropolitan cities and provinces announced by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 21st, the regions that received the top tier were Gwangju, Daejeon, Busan, and Jeju, and Gwangju was the only local government to rise two levels from the lower-middle tier to the upper tier.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has been investigating the degree of gender equality at the national and regional levels annually since 2010 to understand the level of gender equality by country and metropolitan cities/provinces, establish policy directions from a gender equality perspective, and check tasks by sector. The results are announced in four tiers: top, upper-middle, lower-middle, and bottom.

The gender equality index consists of three areas: ▲ gender-equal social participation ▲ women's human rights and welfare ▲ gender equality awareness and culture, and eight fields including economic activity, decision-making, education and training, welfare, health, safety, family, and culture and information. It is calculated with a perfect gender equality state considered as 100 points.

Gwangju fell from the top tier in 2016 to the upper-middle tier in 2017 and the lower-middle tier in 2018 but re-entered the top tier in 2019. In particular, improvements in the areas of gender-equal social participation and women's human rights and welfare were analyzed to have been instrumental in the leap to the top tier.

In the gender-equal social participation area, the score rose by 4.4 points from 71.1 points (5th place) the previous year to 75.5 points, ranking 1st, and in the women's human rights and welfare area, the score jumped 2.9 points from 83.9 points (15th place) the previous year to 86.8 points, rising 8 places to 7th.

Gwangju has been making efforts to improve the gender equality index in the vulnerable "safety" sector following the drop to the lower-middle tier in the 2018 regional gender equality index.

The city has formed a Women's Violence Prevention Committee with related organizations such as the city government, police agency, and women's violence support facilities to establish a cooperative system, and is conducting research on the actual conditions of digital sex crimes and analysis of vulnerable spaces for women's safety in the region to prepare countermeasures.

Additionally, efforts are being made to create a safe social environment by expanding the installation of women's safe delivery lockers and security CCTV, and cracking down on illegal camera installations in women's restrooms.

Gwak Hyun-mi, Director of the Women's and Family Bureau of the city, said, "The results of our efforts to make Gwangju a happy city for women and families have appeared as a significant increase in the regional gender equality index," adding, "We will not be complacent and will continue to make efforts to establish and spread a work-life balance and family-friendly culture for citizens so that Gwangju becomes the future of gender-equal Korea."