Women And Extraordinary Women: First Woman Prime Minister of South Korea

Thursday, April 20, 2006

First Woman Prime Minister of South Korea

Ms Han Myeong-sook was endorsed by the National Assembly as the first women Prime Minister of South Korea. She is a member of President Roh's Uri Party, has been the Minister for Environment and Minister for Gender Equality, and is also a well known feminist and democracy activist. She was jailed in 70'the s for protesting against the authoritarian rule of the government at that time. Aged sixty-two, she has been known as a critic of the US approach to North Korea and speaking out her mind on various issues of national interest.

2 comments:

Sray2:19 PM
Can you make a list of women leaders for all the (or at least the influential ones) countries, and then analyse whether the country was more or less successful (GDP, poverty, education, defence) during her reign? I am sure almost all female leaders have been strong ones, as females do have to jump through much higher hoops to get the job... but an analysis would be really nice :).
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KL8:55 PM
Yep, Sray, that is going to be my second dissertation ;);)...
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My parents are originally from India and I spent quite a bit of time there where still today women are third class citizens in rural villages and small towns. They are being constantly sexually assaulted in streets, roads, trains and buses and I also painfully experienced those much. I loved math and science and always wanted to be an astronaut. However, while growing up, I was constantly told and reminded that such fields are not for girls/women as they do not have the brain or the mental capacity to succeed in those fields. After moving to the US as a teenager-kid, I saw such prejudices exist even here. Not only that, but situations seem to be worse here with women being brainwashed that they need to groom themselves all the time to look beautiful so that they get good husbands or rich husbands!! At first I refused to believe it. However, my female students also told me the same thing that girls in school get into fashion and ignore math and science fields so that they come out as beautiful and not nerdy and get good dates!!! Such ideas are also seemed to be enforced by TV, magazines and newspapers where only news about Kim Kardashia or such celebrity reality stars and models are published. But there are thousands and millions of extraordinary women out there who are great achievers in various fields but at the same time loving daughter, mother, sister and wife. Where are the stories of those women? How come their news are never published? Who will I follow as my mentors? I have a PhD now in Mathematics, and do research in Mathematics and Computational Science. I am also a professor. Where will I find the role models so that my daughters, sisters and other women students can follow? So, this blog is trying to capture the stories of such extraordinary women. Now and then I will try to give in my opinions also :-).