Seoul City Selects 24 Works for 'Creating a Workplace Free of Sexual Harassment' Essay Contest

'Daum Saram' Grand Prize Winner on the Hardships Faced by Divorced Working Mothers with Children Who Reentered the Workforce

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul's 'With You' Seoul Workplace Sexual Harassment and Violence Prevention Center announced on the 8th that it held an essay contest titled ‘Creating a Workplace Free of Sexual Harassment’ for Seoul citizens to promote a gender-equal corporate culture without sexual harassment, and selected 24 works after the final review.

According to Seoul City, 81 works were submitted over two months from April to June this year, and six experts conducted the final evaluation. The grand prize, the Seoul With You Award, went to Lee Ji-eun’s ‘The Next Person.’ The essay, which records the story of a divorced woman with children who, after a career break, successfully re-entered the workforce but experienced sexual harassment within the organization and united with other victims to achieve disciplinary action, was unanimously selected by the judging panel as the Seoul With You Award winner.

Now in its third year, the contest has received a total of 390 submissions to date. The judging panel, composed of external experts including literary critics, highly praised the contest for transforming the voices of those who had ‘barely dared to speak’ about the widespread workplace sexual harassment in Korean society into a social message.

Through essays submitted by participants working in various occupations such as office workers, face-to-face contact services, and healthcare, the socio-cultural issue of sexual objectification of female workers was clearly revealed. Numerous cases of sexual harassment involving divorced women, single-parent families, women with career interruptions, non-regular female workers, and middle-aged women stood out.

Additionally, the content addressing the negative impact of male-centered vertical organizational environments not only on women but also on male workers and their experiences is noteworthy. Essays by a young male employee who felt discomfort with the company culture of gatherings involving female hostesses, and a male who became a role model by supporting victims and standing in solidarity against sexual harassment by superiors, were selected as honorable mentions.

Furthermore, various approaches by the MZ generation to immediately respond to workplace sexual harassment, preventing further harm and spreading a healthy organizational culture, attracted attention. Examples include posting a document titled ‘Matters Constituting Workplace Sexual Harassment’ next to the office copier after witnessing sexual harassment situations, and the witty responses of MZ generation employees who smiled and called an older male boss exhibiting prejudice against women “like a grandfather.”

The center plans to produce the contest-winning works, which contain citizens’ voices, into various contents such as webtoons and essay books to encourage improvement of organizational cultures that trivialize and normalize sexual harassment in the workplace. Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Women and Family Policy Office, stated, “Many entries in the contest clearly revealed gender-discriminatory organizational cultures and confirmed that such cultures lead to sexual harassment. Seoul City will take the lead in establishing a workplace sexual harassment prevention system and spreading a gender-equal corporate culture to ensure that the labor rights of Seoul’s workers are not violated.”