The 15th #MeToo Testimony:

"I majored film and wishes to work in the production team. After working in the field, I was always lashed out by blames from coworkers that I am ‘being sissy’, ‘acting like a girl’ and not working as hard as the men do, and was belittled by thinking that my mistakes would shame all other women. I was scolded and depreciated for not being kind enough like a girl should, and often heard reckless remarks including ‘that’s why we don’t hire women in this field’. These words make the women working in the film industry suffer and feel insecure during their entire working hours, often forcing them to quit pursuing their careers.“

"In many occasions, directors force actresses to make more nudity without a former consent. I remember a director who ripped off the clothes of an actress urging that the actress ‘should look like that she is being raped’. They justify their deed as adding reality to the movie, but their films are a mere reflection of their own libido. Those perverted filmmakers keep making movies and their creations had been on screen in the theater until now. "

The 16th #MeToo Testimony(Kim Seung-Ha, KTX Stewardess manager) :

"Employment of KTX Stewardess started from sexual discrimination from the very first. There was a strong prejudice that females are more appropriate for care services and that they can be hired only shortly before their marriage, and this accounts for hiring KTX stewardess separately as an irregular employee with less wage and less career opportunity. No matter how hard we worked, we were not able to gain job security and compensation that the male employees were able to achieve doing the same work. We started working with pride and diligence, but faced a poor working condition at last."

"Our work environment was very unsafe. There was this stewardess who was electrocuted and hospitalized, but the Railroad Corporation(KORAIL) directed the stewardesses to not to make an interview with news channels or broadcasts. Since the stewardesses are hired in second vendor companies, male employees from KORAIL often forces us to accompany them for drinks, or dance with them. Some of them forcefully hugged or harassed us, but we were not able to say no to them since they could possibly be in charge of our job contract.“

“Those men are not changing, only the harassed victims are resigning from their jobs. No matter how hard those women try, they are not able to gain the same rights as their male co-workers and this mysogynic situation is still in progress. We are struggling but will never give up fighting against this injustice against female workers and discrimination on the job. From this year, we hope to work as the rigtful employee of KTX as well as protecting the safety of the cabin.”

The 26th #MeToo Testimony:

“We existed as a thin thread of voices as we were exposing our victimhood. However, it is now turning into a thicker twine with the advent of the #MeToo movement. Still, we are living with anger from discrimination and injustice, yet we are not afraid of it like we did before since hopefully, it will work as a drive to eliminate gender violence from now on."

The 53rd #MeToo Testimony:

"The chairman in my former workplace harassed me constantly, and I quitted working after six months of terrible experience. Victims are often blamed for being atypical, having lower work efficiency or giving the reasons for the accusers. These happened to me in the same way and it was my boss who blamed me for not working hard enough. How can I work so well and efficiently in such a condition, when someone is constanly harrassing me?“

The 73rd #MeToo Testimony:

"I would like to say that you have to be very sensitive and furious against people who speak out their mysoginic prejudice. When I meet such people, I ask them back: “Don’t you think that is very discriminative? I think it is very outdated to have such prejudice”. Or you can point out that it is “uncool” to do so. Those accused of being prejudiced or uncool from lots of audiences are very likely to have self-observation. I believe that those indicating words can change the world at last.“

The 115th #MeToo Testimony:

“We had to erase all the names of the accusers while making #MeToo testimonies since the accusers can sue the victims for defaming them although the victims were speaking out of truth. I still cannot understand why someone could be guilty of speaking the truth. This strange law system of ours makes the victims of sexual assaults become a defender in courts. Thus we were only able to make testimony in vague terms. Should it be wrong to say the victimhood outloud?”

The 127th #MeToo Testimony:

“As I am preparing to get a job, everything is frightening. When I get hired, I will be the youngest of the company, evidently making me an outsider due to ‘Pence rule’. Is it that hard to coexist in the same world while admitting that women are the same human as the men? Aside from this stupidity, women in Korea were always discriminated and objectified. It is very pathetic to see males who are afraid of being accused of their wrongdoings and urge such thing as ‘Pence rule’ should be done. These came to my mind as I was preparing for CVs.”

The 135th #MeToo Testimony:

"My husband’s family is very partiarchial, that it is very common for males to dine separately from the female members of the family. One day we were dining and when male in-laws of the family heard the news report on MeToo movement, they said many things that were intolerable to me. ‘Why are those womens raising their voices afterward?’, ‘I am sure that those women are gold diggers’, ‘Those are rumors made for political reasons’ and so much more. I could not stand that conversation. My hands were shivering……. This week I am going to refute them: ‘I had to experience all those sexual harassments in daily life, and does that make me a gold digger?‘“

The 159th #MeToo Testimony:

"I am here on behalf of someone else, but the former (testimonies) made me remind the incident that I kept for a long time. Therefore I am speaking on behalf of another woman while speaking for myself. Women are not treated as the equal human being in this society. We are insulted at school, in our own house, and workplace and exposed to violence. We were born in a rape culture, grew up with it, and face the gender violence in everyday life. Most women have to smile and be gentle in everyday life, but that is an unpleasant job only burdening women. #MeToo movement made me realize that what I experienced through life should not be belittled and forgotten. How did I ever lived silenced? I also silenced myself to survive in this society and struggled. This makes me remind of other womans who are also remaining silence and struggling to survive and then it breaks my heart. From now on, we shall struggle to make a better world lest there would be another woman belittled and discouraged.

The 175th #MeToo Testimony:

"I was a victim of sexual violence from an instructor. I was not able to hear any word of apology or explanation from him until now. I blamed myself for years for bringing such misfortune to myself, that it is a shame to not behave properly and let myself become an easy target for the predator. Gender violence is a result of exploiting women, and again it suppresses the victims even after experiencing such a traumatic event. Victims face the stale patriarchal system and authoritative power that are unseen yet highly hampering, resulting them to surrender and remain silent. Patriarchal culture, male-centered society, and even ourselves internalizing the norms of patriarchal society can act against the #MeToo movement. This is the movement that can make a small, yet meaningful fissure in this misogynistic culture where the danger of gender violence is present at all times. Everyone is watching the #MeToo. I am suggesting to the perpetrators to apologize and deeply regret their assaults. I am honored to unite with such courageous people like you today.“

She cried instead of the triste as if the world was trembling/

And gleaned countless meteors dropped from her cry/

Her hunger, her sad mourn/

Guided everyone dead to the underworld, relieving people from burden/

Only some wandered for a while. The mother who cried sadly feverishly/

Hung the meteors on the sky up upon her head to every pit/

When will her cry stop? Okyre, our poet’s daughter, thy resembles thistle /

You will soon learn how to cry like your mother/

You will learn how to cry instead of the triste in this world

"Domestic workers, who only get paid under the minimum wage, are constantly under danger of being sexually harassed or experiencing sexual assaults while providing their service as cleaning, cooking or housekeeping. We cannot dare to report this traumatic experience to anyone since we need that least minimum wage for the living should not be paid under the minimum wage(She burst into tears). I do not see this as a mere vice of the perpetrators. I would like to accuse this country of not fulfilling its promises to offer stable and decent job conditions for domestic workers."

[Declaration of Struggle]

2018 International Women’s Day Joint Action of Feminist and Labor Groups Stop at 3 O’clock Declaration

Stop at 3 O’clock, once again in 2018.

Listen to women’s voice! Women still have to stop at 3 O’clock this year.

Today last year on the International Women’s Day, female workers stopped working at 3pm and gathered in the square. While male workers earned 1,000,000 won, female workers earned 640,000 won only. Given the eight-hour labor a day, female workers worked virtually without pay after 3pm. Many women held the first Stop at 3 O’clock Rally against this reality last year.

Online and onsite participants argued that this gender wage gap was not only about the wage system but also the product of the unreasonable labor process that female workers had to be engaged in. For example, many female workers were not considered for promotion just because they were women. Many female workers experienced career breaks because women alone had to be responsible for childcare. Care work and service work, in which female workers dominate, had been undervalued. All these female-labor-related problems resulted in the average gender wage gap, which women could easily witness and experience. Gender wage gap attracted social attention last year. However, how much the female workers’ realities have changed since last year’s rally? Against the surprisingly firm irrationalities, women today, once again this year, left their offices at 3pm and are crying for change.

Never ask if a woman is married, if a woman has a boyfriend, or if a woman has a childbirth plan! Hire women at least a half!

Many women face sexism at work from the hiring process. Last year Korea Gas Safety Corporation failed seven female qualified job applicants, because the then president Park ordered “Never hire women.” Moreover, many women get private and sexist questions including if a woman is married, if a woman has a boyfriend, or if a woman has a childbirth plan. Being asked these questions in every job interview, women can realize that companies do not hire women just because they are women! Why is the hiring ratio not commensurate to the population ratio—half and half? This society presumes marriage and childbirth as all the women’s natural duty, and attributes the responsibility to give birth and care children only to women. Companies avoid hiring women for this reason. The society and companies should change.

#MeToo. Uproot sexual violence in the workplace!

Prevalent sexual violence in the workplace prevents women from continuing their career. Recent courageous wave of #MeToo has revealed sexual violence cases in the Prosecution Service, the Police Agency, the media world, the art world, and so on. It clearly shows to the whole society that sexual violence is not just an individual and unlucky event to a small number of women, but a prevalent phenomenon many working women have faced in their everyday workplaces. 

Sexual violence in the workplace directly menaces female workers’ right to live, but it continues under the connivance of male-centered organizational workplace culture. The courageous victim of the sexual harassment in Renault Samsung Motors was disadvantaged by exclusion from work and co-workers’ bullying. As Hanssem Corporation represents, companies deal with sexual violence incident in the workplace by criticizing the victim’s attitude, by threatening the victim to change the testimony, and by stigmatizing the victim as a gold digger or a false accuser or a revengeful woman who failed in love life. Companies do not try to resolve this prevalent problem but rather attack the victim in an organizational way. The courageous victims have to endure secondary damages. The male-centered organizational culture and companies’ problem-resolving system should be entirely transformed. Companies should not do another violence on victim with organizational schemes. Companies should take the responsibility! The Ministry of Employment and Labor should take the responsibility to inspect, manage, and punish the problematic companies!

The Government should observe minimum wage rule!

The minimum wage has fairly brought up in 2018 based on the Government’s resolution to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won by the year 2020. The minimum wage issue is critical to female workers’ right to live, as a large portion of female workers are hired as temporary workers or low-paid workers. In reality, 63% of female workers are paid under the level of minimum wage. Thus, the increase and actual protection of the minimum wage will improve the quality of women’s lives and will help resolving the gender wage gap.

However, the reality of care workers and service workers, which are dominated by middle-aged women, still has a long way to go. The Government did not apply the minimum wage rule to their Social Service Worker Wage Index in 2018. It resulted from the general underestimation of women-dominating care work and from the State’s irresponsible attribution of social service to social service workers’ individual sacrifice. We should change this reality. The State should improve the poor labor condition and actual wage of social service workers.

We hereby point out this firm reality, which makes us leave the office at 3pm again on the International Women’s Day this year, and we urge three demands for change mentioned above.

2018 International Women’s Day The Second Rally of Leaving Office at 3pm

Joint Action of Feminist and Labor Groups Stop at 3 O’clock on the International Women’s Day

Korean Green Party

Korean Council of Trade Unions

사회변혁노동자당

People’s Solidarity for Social Progress

Women Labor Law Support Center

여성엄마민중당

Korea Women’s Trade Union

전국여성연대

Justice Party

Korean Women Workers Association

Korean Women’s Associations United

Women Link

Korean Students Rally