Abstract:
This thesis aims to answer the research question, “Does Park Geun-Hye’s representation as
female president of Korea (2013-2016) translate to gender mainstreaming in the childcare
leave policies in the South Korean workforce?”. Methodology being used is qualitative
research, narrowing into qualitative coding of 50 Park Geun-Hye (hereinafter PGH)’s speeches,
and 26 Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (hereinafter MOGEF)’s PR policy reports with
the ministers’ speeches on it, being coded accordingly to the theoretical frameworks being
deployed. This thesis finds that PGH’s leadership does results in gender mainstreaming policies
in the scale of gender responsive, due to the finding that the Father’s Month childcare policy
did not results in change of “norms, cultural values, and power structure”. The Father’s Month
policy do mainstreaming of more men/fathers to take part in childcare, in addition to the
aforementioned statement, PGH, while addressing the issues and interest of women,
furthermore envision the policy to be able to have career interrupted women contributed to the
Korean economy, in terms of human resources, while men/fathers take part in Father’s Month
childcare leave.
