Moving toward democratization and an open-door policy from the government-led policy, Korean society has experienced a growth of civil groups that have become influential in the current policy-making process. As a result, the incorporation of the opi...
Moving toward democratization and an open-door policy from the government-led policy, Korean society has experienced a growth of civil groups that have become influential in the current policy-making process. As a result, the incorporation of the opinion of these civil society groups in the policy-making process has increased. Along with this progress in the society, womens policy, which was previously estranged from governmental policy, has now emerged as a major policy arena at the governmental level and has made remarkable progress both in laws and political systems in the 1980s. This progress is accelerated as womens groups and womens roles are recognized the importance in the society. Momentously, the maternity protection law, which includes the extension of maternity leave, paid childcare and temporary rest from office, was passed in July 2001, although the process of getting it passed was long and difficult, unlike processes involved in passing other laws.
Policy-making is the product of coordination and compromises among actively involved actors and interest groups. Protecting maternity is important not only for the woman as an individual and a healthy baby, but also for the continuous supply of high quality feminine labor, which in turn helps economy. However, since many government interest groups and firms are involved with womens labor issues due to high costs, this process of compromises and coordination exposes diverse aspects. Specifically, the expansion of the maternity protection policy has produced a lot of controversies due to oppositions from firms and the lack of recognition by the member of society.
Based on this line of argument, this research focuses on the analysis of the maternity policy-making process, which has produced more controversy than any other policies. Throughout the analysis, this research attempts to address policy-making processes and to identify factors that significantly influence the process. In order to achieve this objective, this paper explores how the policy network at each governmental level establishes, and how the nature of the changes in the policy network effects on the maternity policy. The policy network is chosen because this framework is instrumental for analyzing the roles of the participants and for analyzing the interactions among the interest groups.
The research findings are as follows:
First, domestic and international environments are the very important factors in the womens policy-making process. The UN and ILO, as international environments, provide the Korean government with guidelines for establishing laws such as the prevention of discrimination against women and the maternity protection policy. These organizations exert pressure in such a way that the Korean government adopts and implements those policies.
Second, policy networks, characterized as interactions among policy makers, impact the maternity policy. The higher the policy participants, open economy, interactions among the participants, and the governmental power against the private sector, the more likely it is positively related to the maternity policy. In other words, it helps change in the nature of the maternity policy.
Next, this research identifies salient factors that influence the maturity policy. The first is the role of the woman policy-makers in the Congress and government. Male policy-makers carry fundamental limitations in understanding maternity protection in that they cannot share nor experience pregnant and childbirth process. Consequently, the male-dominated policy-making process demonstrates significant weakness and flaws in initiating the maternity protection policy. Therefore, it is extremely important to have female policy-makers in responsible positions. In fact, in an effort to expand the maternity protection policy, the current Kim administration established the ministry of gender equality . As a result, the number of women who share womens problems in the governmental position has increased and this enables a standing policy network within the policy-making arena. The established women network allows the women policy-makers to share and exchange important policy information and create policy initiatives.
Second, the ministry of gender equality practice a major role in order to gain understanding from, and cooperation with, other ministries. Third, it is found that the attributes of, and the interactions among, the actors within the policy network is an influential factor for the maternity protection policy. When the government initiates policy, these attributes enable the government to put up with opposition from the other interest groups. Fourth, election influences policy-making. Specifically, right before and after election, the interaction among women and roles of the women labor are strikingly observed because the women voters predominant the mens.
Fifth, the size and financial resources of the organization are critical to the actors. Specifically, in order to mobilize force, it is very important to have systematic interactions with other groups such as women associations, labor associations, citizen associations, government, news media, and the Congress.
This research concludes with some implications for the practitioners. First, the interactions among the actors in the women policy network have a notable impact on policy outcomes. Moving towards democratization of political system, citizen group push the Congress and the government to gain discuss opportunities and these opportunities are important avenue to express womens rights and women labor groups interests. Second, in order to improve womens status in the labor market, it is very important to have more women in the policy-making process. In the case of Sweden, a high level of womens participation in the policy-making process enables the society to maximize the utilization of women labor for enhanced economic development. Third, the government should allocate more resources to the womens apparatus. Financial support provides a foundation from which to accomplish womens policy. Finally, the womens policy network, which had been alienated from the policy-making process, has emerged as a part of the governance structure in the political system. However, more importantly, after the policy-making, in order to gain voluntary cooperation from the private sector, it is required for the government to put more effort on persuasion and coordination with the private sector than ever.
Key words : Policy network, Maternity protection, Policy-making process, Policy participant, Women labor, womens policy network