President Park Geun-Hye of South Korea: A woman president without women?

Abstract

This article explores the first female president of South Korea, Park Geun-Hye, and her substantive representation of women. How does this compare to previous administrations led by men? While Park's election is not groundbreaking, since she is one of many Asian women executives taking the family route to power, her presidency still may lead to the implementation of women-friendly policies once elected. Park's conservative party affiliation may counter expectations that she promotes policies related to gender equality. We hypothesize, however, that as the first female president of South Korea, Park expands women's substantive representation. Park's case shows a mixed record in promoting women's substantive representation; her government has extended women-related policy areas first developed by previous progressive governments but has not done so consistently. Though her performance is uneven, it shows improvement over the previous conservative administration. Her immediate predecessor Lee Myung-Bak emerged from the same party Park is affiliated with, and his government reduced the women's policy agenda and cut funding for the Ministry of Gender Equality. As the immediately preceding administration was also conservative, Park could have easily toed the party line. Compared to him, however, Park's government has actively pursued gender equity policies. While impossible to know the motivations, Park's promotion of women's rights may be attributable to her gender. Since we control for partisanship, Park's efforts on behalf of women prove particularly compelling. While advantaged by her political lineage, her government offers important policy benefits to women.