Apply for the Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence Prevention Organizational Culture Diagnosis at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced on the 16th that it will conduct an organizational culture diagnosis to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence in the public sector, targeting a total of 120 institutions including national and public institutions.

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol reiterated his pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, stating, "Hasn't the ministry fulfilled its historical mission by now?" Meanwhile, on the 14th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family at the Government Seoul Office, facing a crossroads regarding its existence, is stirring unrest amid a restless atmosphere. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The Ministry conducted the first demand survey in January and selected a total of 60 institutions for diagnosis, considering the occurrence of incidents in the past three years and the history of advisory (consulting) support for existing incident handling.

Quarterly demand surveys will be conducted in the future, and the second application period will be from the 20th to the 31st. Institutions wishing to undergo the organizational culture diagnosis can submit an application form to the Korea Women’s Human Rights Institute, and the diagnosis is free of charge.

Participating institutions will receive diagnoses from experts in related fields such as counseling, law, and labor on overall aspects including sexual harassment prevention regulations and incident response systems, the thoroughness of preventive activities, and members’ awareness, experience, and coping abilities related to sexual harassment.

Institutions that receive the diagnosis results and improvement recommendations must establish and submit improvement plans based on them, and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will inspect each institution’s improvement plans.

Last year, organizational culture diagnoses were conducted for a total of 121 institutions, deriving improvement tasks tailored to the characteristics of each institution and notifying them of the diagnosis results and improvement recommendations.

Furthermore, after the organizational culture diagnosis, each institution has been systematizing counseling channels to protect victims and prevent secondary damage, and striving to enhance the expertise of grievance counselors and grievance review committees.

Meanwhile, on the 10th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Ministry of National Defense agreed at a meeting to actively cooperate and support each other in diagnosing and improving organizational culture to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence in each military unit.

Choi Seong-ji, Director General for Rights Promotion at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, said, “The sexual harassment prevention organizational culture diagnosis will be a good opportunity to check areas that need improvement for a healthier organizational culture,” and added, “Since organizational culture improvement depends most on the will of the institution, we hope many institutions will take an interest and actively apply so that the organizational culture can change in a desirable way.”