South Korean women have far less social status than women in advanced countries, as shown by the UN Development Program's Gender Empowerment Measure, which ranked the opportunities available to South Korean women at 64th place in a survey of 93 countries. But over the past few years a social atmosphere has emerged in which women's rights have improved in our nation. This has been possible as women have advanced in various social sectors and tangible changes have removed many causes of the gender power imbalance -- including the decline of the male household head system, the enforcement of the special law against prostitution, and the expansion of childcare leave for women.

Despite this, many netizens are calling for the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Now even president-elect Lee Myung-bak's Transition Committee is considering disbanding the ministry, according to its government reorganization plan. A wide difference of opinions clearly exists between those who face the reality of sexual discrimination and those who view reality from their own standpoint. This is the key point of the debate over whether to maintain or abolish the ministry. It is high time that we had a thorough discussion of the issue.

It has been exactly 20 years since the ministry was established in 1988 by the president who was elected the previous year (1987). Its founding was actually the fruition of the democratization movement. The ministry attracted the world's attention because it succeeded in outlawing deep-rooted sources of sexual discrimination in a short period, and achieving serious progress such as the legislation of equal employment opportunity and the campaign against prostitution, and abolishing the male household head system.

It is both a paradox and a natural consequence that the debate over the ministry's identity began as its focus expanded to include families and childcare. Above all, the Ministry of Health and Welfare complained about having to hand over a portion of its purview to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Feminists criticized the government for having established a separate agency in charge of women's affairs. They argued that the establishment of the ministry, contrary to expectations, contributed to reinforcing discriminatory trends by fixing the idea that childcare is a woman's job. Other people were concerned that the ministry was becoming less focused on eliminating sexual discrimination and other actions because it was distracted by administration issues.

Now is the time when we should think hard about the identity of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Some people argue in favor of disbanding it now that the status of South Korean women has improved. But that makes no sense when Finland, Norway and Sweden -- the countries that rank first, second and third in the UNDP's Gender Empowerment Measure and where women are very strong -- still maintain ministries devoted to eliminating sexual discrimination. Last year I visited these countries to gather information for a story on women's rights. I was impressed by their sense of universal human rights which would eliminate sexual discrimination.

Sweden has a Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality and Norway maintains a Ministry of Children and Equality. Both have struck the word "women" from their ministry names. Nevertheless, the elimination of discrimination against women is the most important job for these ministries. They operate their ministries wisely by advocating human rights, and women from ethnic minority groups have been appointed as ministers. But from their standpoint discrimination against women has a deeper meaning in the bigger context of sexual discrimination.

Gender-based studies, a gender-sensitive budget, and gender equality in education are very important components of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's anti-sexual discrimination program. But we need to discuss why we call this program "women's policy." Women account for 35 percent of those who pass the annual state bar examination. Under these circumstances, we need to discuss why a 10-percent quota -- the same quota as 10 years ago -- is still in effect for female candidates at each of Korea's three military academies.

We also should discuss why the Armed Forces Nursing Academy recruits only female candidates -- is nursing a job only for women? The government allocates a budget for unmarried moms. Why doesn't it do so for unmarried dads? Why are only mothers responsible for extra-marital pregnancies? By asking these questions we can expand our understanding of sexual discrimination and widen support for removing all discrimination in our society. If the voters' selection of a new president in 2007 was their expression of a desire to seek values far advanced than those of 1987, then the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, a government agency in charge of eliminating sexual discrimination, should be upgraded and strengthened rather than abolished or weakened.

The column was contributed by Pak Sunny, the Chosun Ilbo's senior reporter for gender affairs.