Colloquium in Dec. 2020
Yun, Jiyoung (Attorney at Law, GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation)
This presentation is on how women workers’ working conditions in South Korea have been changed by COVID-19, based on presenter’s counseling experiences with Korean women employees this year. With her counseling cases in which many Korean women employees face the difficulties of losing jobs or pay cuts, the presenter argues that in South Korea, women employees are more likely to be jeopardized by a recent economic crisis due to COVID-19. According to her, it is the situation that in South Korea the higher percentage of women employees are working in the service industry or precarious jobs compared to men employees which make the women employees more vulnerable to the crisis. Furthermore, she points out the possibility that Korean women’s increased job instability or burden of care is threatening their mental health in the midst of COVID-19; according to a series of surveys in South Korea in 2020, women’s percentage of reporting the experience of severe anxiety or depression is higher than men’s, and it has increased throughout the year.
♣ Please let us apologize for not uploading the photos for this virtual colloquium.
