[Press release]

Photo: UN Women/Jeong Jae Yeon

English | 한국어

Seoul, Republic of Korea — The newly established UN Women Centre of Excellence for Gender Equality in the Republic of Korea (the Centre) hosted its first International Women’s Day celebration at Hotel President in Seoul today. Over 100 diplomats and international development experts from almost 60 countries, including some 30 ambassadors and heads of international organizations based in Korea, gathered to reflect on the importance of gender equality and to reaffirm their support to UN Women’s mission.

The theme of this year's International Women's Day is "DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality," which aligns with the theme of the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”. The CSW is being held from 6-17 March in New York and attended by tens of thousands of people from around the world.

Opening the event, Jeongshim Lee, the Director of the Centre, stated, “International Women's Day is an important occasion that recognizes the critical contributions of women to our societies and celebrates the progress we have made in realizing gender equality.” “I sincerely want to thank all of you gathered in this room for taking up the cause to create a world that is just and equitable for all,” she added.

In her congratulatory remarks, Ki Soon Lee, Vice Minister for Gender Equality and Family in the Republic of Korea, observed, “Global solidarity for achieving genuine gender equality is on the rise.” She noted, “[Korea] will join the efforts of the international community for making one step forward towards a world, where all members of the society, regardless of their gender or generation, can understand each other and feel positive changes.”

In the group photo, all the participants held up the message, "Together for Gender Equality," symbolizing their commitment to promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls.

The event was divided into two sessions. In the first session, under the theme of "Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women," three distinguished speakers shared inspirational speeches based on their experiences.

First, Oh Joon, Chair of Save the Children Korea (former Chair of UN ECOSOC and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations), delivered a powerful message on the historical background and rationale behind the global celebration of International Women's Day. He noted how even in advanced economies, women still have a great deal of difficulties in maintaining their work-life balance, in terms of taking care of their personal and family lives along with their careers. “When it comes to achieving gender equality, it is not just for women but for men as well, because, after all, it takes two to tango,” he concluded.

Next, Yuh Soon Yun, former CEO of the LG Art Center offered practical advice for working women on leadership, emphasizing that there is no ‘female leadership’ as such, but only ‘good and bad leadership.’

Jie-ae Sohn, Ambassador for Cultural Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea, recounted her challenging experience as a working mother of three daughters throughout her career as a journalist and inspired all the participants to create a better society where young women do not have to choose between career and family.

After a moving musical performance by the Beautiful Mind Cello Quartet led by Il-hwan Bae, the event held a special session with women leaders in the field of innovation, technology and digital education. 

First, Sue Moon, a Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recounted days as one of the very few female students of engineering at Seoul National University back in the 1980s. While significant progress has been made since then in terms of women’s representation in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field, she noted, much still needs to be done to break the glass ceiling and to increase women’s representation in the field.

Next, Soonmin Bae, Director of KT AI2XL (AI to Everything Lab) showed how AI technology with gender-biased data can actually reproduce gender discrimination in society (such as the gender pay gap) and emphasized the need to multiply efforts to develop technological solutions for promoting gender equality. Last but not least, Erum Burki, Education Officer of the UNICEF Pakistan Country Office, presented UNICEF’s digital education programme for girls in the COVID-19 situation. “The best technology is the one you already have, know how to use, and can afford,” she emphasized, stressing the critical importance of the local context.

The audience also watched a UN Women video, which affirmed the message that against the pushback, we can only go forward in terms of achieving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.

Photos

Photo: UN Women/Jeong Jae Yeon

Photo: UN Women/Jeong Jae Yeon

Photo: UN Women/Jeong Jae Yeon

More photos are available on Flickr. Photos: UN Women/Jeong Jae Yeon