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When we pull off of expressways during holiday seasons, we regularly witness much longer queues for women's restrooms than men's. The reason is simple: women spend twice as much time in restrooms than men.
Taking this difference into consideration, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security budgeted to build or renovate 1.5 times more toilets for women than men in public restrooms from last year. It is the Gender Budget system, test run from this year's budget, that allowed for such change.
The government has ordered that 105 scheduled projects be implemented this year following the Gender Budget rule, and plans to expand the number to around 200 for next year.
This system is not only advantageous to women. The project on integrating immigrants into Korean society saw 12,000 female foreigners benefit from the project compared to only 4,000 men last year. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice decided to bring up the percentage of male beneficiaries from 25 percent in 2008 to at least 30 percent this year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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