On March 7th, a statue of a girl was built on Wall Street in the U.S., and it is in front of the ‘Charging Bull’ statue. She is looking up at the bull confidently and putting her hands on her hips. The statue is called ‘A Fearless Girl’, which was made by the investment company State Street Global Advisors, and it was built to commemorate March 8th’s International Women’s Day. It was originally planned to stand there for just 1 month. However, the message that the statue delivered was so impressive that many people wanted the statue to remain. A lot of efforts for promoting women’s rights have continued in various ways all around the world.
  International Women’s Day was made for commemorating the U.S. female textile workers who held a demonstration in Rutgers Square on March 8th, 1905 for improving women’s conditions in the labor system, in the workplace, and in political rights. Nowadays, many events and campaigns have been held on Women’s Day for the advancement of the status of women, for the opposition of sexual discrimination and for the increase of women’s rights.
  For example, especially in the U.S., many professional groups, such as councilors and teachers, have had strikes in each city, and they have participated in strikes wearing red clothes, which represent women’s economic strength. In Poland, people demonstrated against the conservative party, claiming that they needed to get rid of both wage discrimination and birth control restrictions. In Italy, women have started demonstration parades at the Colosseum. In the case of Korea, since 1985, The United Korea Women’s Association has led various events on International Women’s Day, and this year, in Seoul and Daegu, there were some events related to International Women’s Day: a celebration for International Women’s Day held by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, a demonstration of leaving work early as a way of a protest, and protest marches. In addition to those events, many celebrities gave speeches and delieverd some messages about celebrating Women’s Day worldwide. For example, Anne Hathaway, an actress, made mention of maternity leave and emphasized the importance of women’s rights at a UN meeting hall. Such events are feminist events.
  Feminism encompasses various social and political movements as well as theories to combat the suppression of women caused by societal structures. In the past, since men took the lead in social acts and politics, the feminism movement set goals of claiming and fulfilling women’s rights in a variety of fields. There are varying points of views regarding feminism. A representative example is the controversy about actress Emma Watson exposing her breasts in a photoshoot. Emma Watson is known as a feminist. Regarding the picture of Emma Watson’s partially exposed breasts, a few feminists hurled criticisms saying, ’It is not feminism using sexual appeal commercially for popularity.’ Emma Watson responded,“Feminism is about giving women the right of choice, and it is for the individual's freedom, not for attacking other women. In other words, feminism is about women’s freedom, equality, and liberation.” That incident created a controversy, and it spawned a variety of viewpoints on feminism.
  Recently, interest in feminism has increased even in Korea, and it has become a hot potato. Does feminism have a good image in Korea? I carefully say, ‘No’. Especially in Korea, there are many people who see feminists as misandrists and not as women for increasing women’s rights and gender equality. However, this is a harmful effect caused by a few misled feminism groups that have incorrectly portrayed feminism. Not only in Korea but also all over the world, there are many errant interpretations of feminism. We have to know feminism’s original purposes: striving for women’s rights and gender equality. Park Hong-ju, who is in charge of Chungbuk Women’s Foundation, said, “First, to make a gender equality society, we have to communicate with each other and try to reach a consensus on gender issues. In order to do so, we need to think of how to make a proper culture where everyone can be treated equally. Second, to settle the gender equality issue, the role of the mass media and community is very important because they can inform many people about regional   policies related to gender equality and about the successful results of feminist movements, which can help change people’s thoughts on gender step by step.”

By Yoo Jin-kyu
jk37@cbnu.ac.kr