여가부 and Legal History

By mkcooke

  • Women Gain Right to Vote

    The first to grant women the right to vote under the National Assembly Election Act (Act No. 175)

  • Constitutional Gender Equality Clause included

  • 사회부 created

    August 1948, the Ministry of Social Affairs established the Women’s Bureau
    In 1948, women gained their legal rights to vote, drive, and own and inherit properties and assets - (South Korea Women in Culture, Business & Travel : A Profile of Korean Women in the Fabric of Society. World Trade Press. 2010. p. 1)
  • Period: to

    사회부

  • Establishment of the Korean women’s organization (대한여학사협회)

  • Enactment of the Labor Standards Act

    Enactment of the Labor Standards Act Enactment of protection regulations for working women (paid leave for more than 1 month after childbirth, paid menstrual leave, prohibition of excessive work, equal treatment for men and women, etc.)

  • Family Law Effective

    Law contained many male-dominated provisions for marriage, divorce, and inheritance (enacted in 1957)

  • Enactment of the Prostitution Prevention Act

  • Establishment of the Department of Maternal and Child Health

  • Seoul Family Court Opened

  • Seoul Family Court Ruling (divorce reasoning)

    Seoul Family Court ruled that unconfessed pre-marriage infidelity was also a ground for divorce

  • Supreme Court Ruling (divorce reasoning)

    Supreme Court ruling to exclude spouse at fault for divorce request 'The infertility of the wife cannot be a reason to justify the husband's act of conspiracy'

  • Supreme Court Ruling (US Soldier rape case)

    Supreme Court sentenced to two US soldiers for raping Korean women