Female Candidates Also Perform 'Proper Form' Push-Ups in Police Recruitment Exam

A student at Mega CST Police Dormitory Academy in Anseong-si, Gyeonggi-do is catching their breath after finishing push-ups during physical training time. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] From now on, female candidates taking the police officer recruitment exam will have to do push-ups in the standard position just like male candidates. Until now, female candidates performed push-ups with their knees on the ground instead of their toes.

The National Police Commission held a plenary meeting on the 21st and approved the amendment to the "Regulations on Police Officer Recruitment Exams" containing this provision. These regulations are administrative rules and are finalized with the approval of the Commissioner of the National Police Agency without separate review or promulgation procedures. However, a grace period until July 1 of next year was set to avoid confusion among examinees.

The amended regulations stipulate that female candidates must perform push-ups with their toes and palms on the ground, the same as male candidates, during the police officer recruitment exam. The previous method, which differentiated by gender, was criticized not only for unfairness but also for causing distrust toward female police officers, leading to the decision to require female candidates to do push-ups in the standard position.

The Police Commission also approved an amendment to the "Police Officer Physical Fitness Management Regulations" to unify the push-up method in the physical fitness test for police officers to the standard position. However, considering the difference in muscle strength by gender, the police plan to adjust the scoring criteria for women to about 50% of that for men.