S. Korea mulls mandating women serve
Discussion starts to extend the military draft beyond men
SEOUL, South Korea — “You just don’t get it; you’ve never served.”
Most South Korean women probably have heard this line. It speaks to a core gender divide here — between men, who serve two years’ mandatory military service, called and women, who don’t. That men and women will always be different.
Military service is required for most men 18 to 35, and they often serve during college or as they launch their careers. It’s a formative experience, but only for half the population.
As the nuclear threat from North Korea looms larger than ever, South Koreans are soberly evaluating their country’s military readiness.
That may be why a recent anonymous petition requesting President Moon Jae-in’s administration to expand the draft to women went viral online, sparking debate over whether requiring women to serve would make the country more prepared — and more equal.
“We need to fight together, men and women,” said Kim Hee-jung, a 16year-old student at Yale Girls’ High School in Seoul. “There are many problems with gender inequality, the expectation that men go to the military and women give birth . ... We should be able to fight, throw grenades. If there’s a war, we can’t just stay home and live in fear.”
The presidential petition system was launched last month to mark Moon’s 100th day in office. Thousands of petitions have been filed since then, and most of them don’t break 1,000 signatures. The topics can get personal, from complaints about a neighborhood dispute to the performance of South Korea’s soccer team in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
But the petition to draft women for the military garnered 70,000 signatures within three days, and by the time it reached its Sept. 14 deadline, 123,204 people had supported it. It now ranks as the second-most popular petition to the Blue House, Korea’s executive mansion.
The petition reads more like a rant than a cogent policy proposal.
Moon wants to reduce the length of mandatory service, so it’s unlikely he would make a policy change to expand the requirement. At a recent administration meeting, Moon noted the popularity of the petition and called it an “interesting issue.”
Still, the petition appears to resonate amid the growing nuclear threat from the North.
Oh So-hyun, a 22-yearold student at Sogang University, said women lack a basic understanding of the military and defense system because the draft only applies to men. She wants to see it expanded to women, but said the training needs to be adjusted for physical differences.
Women serve as officers in the South Korean military, comprising about 6 percent. They do not serve as ordinary soldiers.
Claudia Ryu, 35, served in the South Korean navy for eight years. She studied international conflict analysis in graduate school, and wanted firsthand knowledge about her country’s military.
Ryu said expanding the draft to women is crucial to achieving gender equality in South Korea. She added women should be allowed to serve at the combat level, to make the military itself more fair.
“Because the mandatory service is only for men, men tend to look down on women in the society. They say, ‘You don’t understand how society operates because you have never served in the military,’ and that is the default line,” Ryu said.
“I never experienced that, because I say: ‘Hey, I was in the military for eight years.’ And they say, ‘Oh.’ They can never say those things to me, because they know they can’t just dismiss me like that . ... We should be given the same opportunity, same rights and same obligations in society.”
Not everyone agrees. Some, noting that women already have the option to serve in the military, say they don’t see an urgent need to make it mandatory. Others wondered how much it would cost taxpayers to expand the draft, and whether it would lead to more sexual harassment or discrimination within the military.