Sex Discrimination in Korean Newspapers
salary, promotions and assignments (Walsh-Childers et al., 1996a). And, other studies
showed that few women occupy top management positions in U.S. newsrooms (Beasley,
1993; Beasley & Gibbons, 1993; Jurgensen, 1993; Lacy et al., 1993; Mills, 1998).
In conservative societies like Korea, the degree of discrimination women
journalists face tends to be higher than in the United States. Korean culture and society
traditionally have attached importance to patriarchal authority and have upheld a male-
centered construct in almost every aspect of society. As a result, women’s economic
activity is low and women’s right to work has never been a prominent issue in Korea.
While the number of women has increased in the work force (as their educational levels
became higher, the awareness and necessity for financial activity grew), they still
remain in lower positions (New Woman Power series, 2002).
Similar to other businesses, Korean journalism newsrooms are predominately
male -- in 2001, women journalists accounted for only 12.7 percent of Korean
newsrooms (Kim, 2001). Moreover, women rarely are editors or managers in Korean
newsrooms.
Women are also covered and treated unfairly in Korean news pages. For
example, national newspaper coverage sometimes includes the few female government
ministers. Newspapers often described the women ministers’ personal backgrounds
rather than their professional careers or achievements, using terms such as “Old-maid
Minister,” “Actress-Minister” or “Sob-Minister.” Male ministers are not described by
their appearance or sex. Moreover, newspapers used negative terms such as
“depressed,” “anxiety,” “worry,” “outspoken dissatisfaction” when they reported on
the cabinet positions that the women led (Kim, 1999). Such coverage of women
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