hankyoreh

The survivor of sexual harassment by former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon holds a press conference at a hotel in Seoul on March 17. (pool photo)

“I’ve told CEOs and other executives at all the companies I consult for not to go out for meals or drinks with female employees or even have a cup of tea with them. After [the suicide of] late Seoul mayor Park Won-soon, I’ve strongly advised them not to have female assistants at all.”

That was what Jeong Cheol-seung, an attorney for Park’s bereaved family members, wrote on a social media account on Friday. Even though Park has been clearly identified as the perpetrator of sexual misconduct and his actions are well-known, Jeong appeared to be suggesting that the survivor’s gender was to blame for the sexual misconduct of the man whose family he’s representing.

Jeong offered an assessment of a female assistant who’d worked at a friend’s office and summarized the advice he gave his friends: namely, don’t hire female assistants. He didn’t provide any specific reason for the advice, which he said he’d strongly emphasized since Park’s death.

Some have compared Jeong’s recommendations to the sexually discriminatory “Mike Pence rule.” That refers to the practice of men excluding female colleagues and avoiding interaction with them because of the sexual misconduct that can occur while working with women.

Jeong Cheol-seung said in a social media post Friday that he advises male CEOs and executives to not hire women assistants. (Facebook screenshot)

The name of the rule derives from remarks that Mike Pence, former vice president, made during a media interview in 2002 when he was a congressman. Pence said he didn’t have dinner alone with women other than his wife.

There are several problems with the Pence Rule. It treats female colleagues as sexual objects and assumes that interaction with female colleagues is inherently sexual. The rule doesn’t help make workplaces safer because it fails to fundamentally reduce sexual misconduct at the workplace or sexual abuse by people in positions of power.

A major problem with the Pence Rule is that it leads to other kinds of discrimination. Since most people in senior positions at organizations are men, excluding women by applying the Pence Rule to the workplace would further reinforce the “glass ceiling” by decreasing the employment of women and blocking their promotion.

Kwon Su-hyeon, head of Korea Women’s Political Solidarity, said that Jeong’s remarks “shift the responsibility for sexual harassment and sexual violence to women.”

“To make those remarks, you’d have to regard women as merely sexual objects and not as equal human beings. It’s particularly dangerous for prominent people in society to energetically promote exclusion of women or misogyny because that can send the wrong message to the general public,” Kwon said.

Faced with continuing criticism, Jeong wrote on social media on Sunday that men who objected to his remarks reminded him that “stupid people who haven’t been defrauded have a tendency to make fun of the victims of fraud.”

By Park Go-eun, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]