Thursday, May 21, 2009

Is this really equality?

I was reading this blog post about Seoul, the capital city of Korea, in Korea Beat and was not sure whether to feel a sense of happiness that women are getting more equality as their male counterparts or feel saddened that women do not yet have equal rights in the Korean culture. The city plans on various initiatives to help create a "Happy city for women."

Several of the initiatives include:

increasing the number of women's public toilets, so there will be a 1:1 ratio with the men.
the installation of women preferred parking spaces, along with security nearby
more cameras and safety lights along the sidewalks
increase in the number of jobs for women and daycares for children
increase of public parks

And the one that makes me very surprised is:

Accordingly, the city will retrofit an additional 51 kilometers of sidewalk to accommodate women wearing high heels.

I can imagine that is one that we all might like. Kidding aside, these are all great plans. However, what about just basic women's rights where women are not treated like second class citizens. It's a shame that this still goes on way too much in the world. It truly does make me thankful for what I have, and the opportunities I do have.

3 comments:

Wrapped up in Life said...

Sadly, I don't think women wil *ever* be considered equal as men, at least outside the home.

Great ideas, though - love retrofitting the sidwalk!

Tiptoe said...

True, at least not worldwide, that's for sure. Sometimes, I think we need to go back to all those matriarchical societies.

Reagan said...

How about moving towards accepting women as attractive when wearing comfortable shoes? High heels are designed to enhance the breasts and butt to appeal to men...laaaaame.