"Female Public Officials Also Take Night Duty"... Jeju Island Revives It After 77 Years

'69.6% Support for "Gender-Integrated Duty System"
Total Available Personnel for Day and Night Duty: 610
Duty Rotation Cycle Improved to 7-8 Months

Jeju Province will implement a gender-integrated duty system starting from the 1st, allowing female public officials to participate in overnight duty work. This marks the beginning of a female overnight duty system for the first time in 77 years since Jeju was promoted to a province on August 1, 1946, during the U.S. military government period.

Jeju Province announced that from the day before, female public officials will participate in duty work without distinction between day duty and overnight duty under the 'gender-integrated duty system.'

The operation of the gender-integrated duty system was introduced to improve the duty rotation between male and female employees in response to the spread of gender equality awareness in the workplace and the increasing proportion of female public officials.

Prior to implementation, a survey on duty operation improvement was conducted in February among 319 public officials in Jeju, with 69.6% of respondents supporting the gender-integrated duty system.

[Image source=Getty Images Bank]

The proportion of female public officials in Jeju Province has steadily increased from 32.4% in 2020 to 33.9% in 2021, 35.0% in 2022, and 36.8% as of January 2023.

Accordingly, female public officials were included as duty personnel without distinction between day and overnight duty, and duty orders for May were issued. According to the duty orders, day duty is from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends and public holidays, and overnight duty is from 6 p.m. on weekdays including weekends until 9 a.m. the following day.

With female public officials participating in overnight duty, the available personnel for day and overnight duty will increase to a total of 610, including 315 males and 295 females. The duty rotation cycle will also be improved to 7 to 8 months.

Before implementing the gender-integrated duty system, the province improved the working environment of the duty room by modifying the building structure and preparing female rest facilities. They also plan to conduct continuous monitoring to prevent safety accidents.

Jeju City has allowed female public officials to participate in overnight duty since January of this year, and Seogwipo City has been conducting female public official overnight duty since April. However, persons with severe disabilities and pregnant women are excluded from overnight duty.

Common Topic in Anonymous Workplace Communities: 'Reverse Discrimination Against Men'

Jeju Island, which was promoted to a provincial road on August 1, 1946, during the U.S. military government period, will allow female public officials to participate in overnight duty for the first time in 77 years.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

Meanwhile, an analysis of posts on the anonymous workplace app 'Blind' revealed many complaints about reverse discrimination against men related to gender discrimination topics.

According to the Korea Women's Development Institute, Eunjeong Kim, Associate Researcher of the Gender Mainstreaming Knowledge Innovation Headquarters’ Gender Data Division, conducted a text analysis of 2,672 posts related to organizational culture on the company life board of Blind from August 2021 to August 2022.

The analysis showed that in the area of gender discrimination, there were many complaints about reverse discrimination against men. In particular, the issue of assigning only male employees to duty and night overnight duty was a major concern, Kim said.