[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Soyoung] Kang Minjin, leader of the Youth Justice Party, fired back at former People Power Party Supreme Council member Lee Junseok's claim that "livelihoods have collapsed because of the female minister quota system," saying, "If you want to oppose the female quota, just say so. Why are you making the leap that livelihoods have collapsed because of the female quota system?"
In a post on her Facebook on the 23rd, Kang criticized, "There are quite a few male ministers who are no different from the female ministers that former Supreme Council member Lee pointed out as 'lacking expertise.'"
She said, "The Moon Jae-in administration broke its promise of a 30% female quota in the cabinet," adding, "In fact, it was never fulfilled. There are only three female ministers among the department heads."
She continued, "This only means that the talent pool of the Moon administration was too narrow," and criticized, "In a normal country and a normal administration, fulfilling just a 30% female quota would not be an unreasonable task."
She cited Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye, former Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyun-mi, and former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae, stating, "It is not even appropriate to judge expertise solely by related experience, but if evaluated fairly by the same standards, there are several male ministers who appear to have similar or even less experience than these three female ministers."
Kang also targeted former Supreme Council member Lee, saying, "The Moon administration's report card is not good. It is not because of the ministers' gender but because of the Moon administration's problems," and added, "There are so many mistakes by the Moon administration that the claim that livelihoods collapsed because of the female quota is absurd."
Earlier, on the 22nd, former Supreme Council member Lee argued in a JoongAng Ilbo column, "These (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye, former Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyun-mi, and former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae) are beneficiaries of the quota system that allocates 30% of the cabinet to women," and claimed, "In a situation where livelihoods are urgent, dissatisfaction arose because the top experts were not appointed and there was an obsession with numerical gender equality."
In response, Kang said on the same day, "This is a very bad kind of agitation," and rebutted, "The problem with the current government's cabinet appointments was that appropriate personnel were not placed overall because they looked for appointments within the 'my people' boundary, not because there was a problem caused by appointing women."
She drew a line, saying, "Was former Minister Cho Kuk, who divided the country into two, a woman or a man? Was former Minister Byun Chang-heum, who resigned in disgrace over the LH scandal, a woman or a man? There is no reason to bring up gender issues."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
