WORKING PAPER
COMMITTEE: - Economic and Social Council
Agenda: - Promoting Economic Equity for Women
NATIONS PROPOSING: - Republic of Korea
1. Recognizes Laws that establish equal rights for women and men provide a solid
foundation, and indeed a pre-condition, for demanding and achieving gender equality.
However, the achievement of gender equality in practice, especially for poorer women
and those who are marginalized, requires the dismantling of structural barriers as well as
of discriminatory social norms and stereotypes. International human rights standards and
principles set out clear obligations for going beyond formal equality and the provision of
‘same treatment’ by recognizing that different treatment might be required to achieve
equality of outcomes.
2. Notes the problem In line with OECD best practice, legislate to integrate gender impact
assessment and gender-responsive processes into:-
a. policy design,
b. implementation
c. and evaluation
d. legislative processes
e. and budgeting
to ensure the unique challenges faced by women, particularly diverse groups of
women, are addressed and that gender equality is foregrounded in the work and
investments of government. This requires an intersectional approach. The
Government should improve, not worsen, the lives of women and this imperative
should underpin the work of central and service delivery agencies (including in
important areas such as employment and social services).
3. Work with industry, unions and other stakeholders – including :-
a. employer associations,
b. professional associations and
c. advocacy groups –
to establish or scale programs that support women to enter and flourish in
traditionally male dominated sectors of employment.
Investigate mechanisms to generate better impact from current government
investments aimed at boosting participation in these sectors, including strategically
aligning government programs, evaluating the effectiveness of investments, and
experimenting with and evaluating new approaches.
4. Recommends Develop an inclusive:-
a. procurement policy that prioritises awarding contracts to businesses that demonstrate
positive action in gender equality, pay equity, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
b. This could include setting targets for the number of women employed/engaged
through government-issued contracts, particularly for services in maledominated
industries.
5. Resource critical women’s advocacy work, such as the National Women’s Alliances or
similar models, to provide a consultative mechanism to elevate the voices of diverse
women and girls around the country.
These advocacy groups should also provide advice on policy priorities to improve
women’s economic equality and life outcomes, including by working with the National
Women’s Economic Equality Advisory Body.
6. Acknowledges Gender impact analysis and gender responsive budgeting processes
require robust gender-
a. disaggregated data,
b. analysis
c. research.
Key actions to consider for effective measuring progress towards gender equality,
according to the OECD, is the requirement of data disaggregation by gender, as well
as the incorporation of a gender perspective within national statistical legislation.
7. Ensure that government funding of sectors and services facilitates the availability of
high-quality and secure work in these areas. This will mean that funding is adequate to
support living wages, decent work and the capacity to progress and develop in careers,
e.g., in the early-childhood education and care, aged care and disability support sectors.
8. To uphold the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, the Korean government
began to release the current status of wage by business characteristics in 2020 to show the
varying degree of the current status of wages and wage gaps by the size and category of
businesses.
i. The government also provides diverse information on wage systems and
consulting
services related to wages to effectively support the overhaul of wage systems.
ii. As a result, the wage gap by sex and employment type has been on a steady
decline, with the wage gap between the top 20 percent and bottom 20 percent
narrowing gradually. In addition, wage calculation considers seniority less
important but increases the weight of the characteristics and difficulties or work
itself.