Feature 3. Sketch from Forum
For those who never give up
Eun Mee Lee Park
( a Counselor at the Action Center for Unemployed Women, KWWA)
Preparing projects always makes me nervous. If the project will be elucidated in public, the tension is greater. Finally the day has come. Middle-aged unemployed women have come to a forum in order to expose their problems to society. For today, they are the heroines.
Is there any group which is weaker or more exhausted than these unemployed women in their middle age? I have been dealing with them for quite some time but I still feel anger whenever I meet these women.
What led them to such a difficult situation in this society? The most important mission in the preparation of the forum was how to organize these women. Most of them cannot make plans for tomorrow because they are given work a day at a time.
Most of them are mothers who have to be at home in the evening to look after their children. It will be hard for them to stay until the end of the forum.
The fact that they are responsible for housework and childcare makes their situation even harder. And yet society feels no concern or understanding towards their multiple burdens. This makes their lives a daily battle.
We planned to have lunch together and then to move to the forum hall. These women were excited at the fact that they were to speak in Congress Hall, which until now was for them a place where only the famous had a voice.
Just the chance of taking a day out from the daily toil was marvellous for them. But at the gate, some were disheartened when questioned by policemen as to their purpose at Congress Hall. These arrogant men's salaries are paid by our taxes - and yet they seemed not to see us.
Arriving at the forum, we met other unemployed women of middle age. We felt unified. The most important fruit of the forum was the chance to build up the unity and solidarity between these women, until now isolated and burdened with problems.
We exposed the difficulties of our situation and criticized unrealistic government policy. We wished that we had been able to shout out!
We had dinner together and shared more stories that we could not tell in the forum. The most difficult problem was regarding childcare. We really do not want to bequeath our harsh lives to our children.
It was a great experience for us. The mothers' active attitude towards their harsh lives was so impressive. I can confirm that hope remains, as long as we are confident and never give up.
Korea Working Women's Network 2000