[Actually] 'Leisure Ministry Abolition', what is the scenario after that?

The SBS Fact Check Team is checking the promises of presidential candidates.

Recently, the Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung's pledge to apply for hair loss insurance was discussed, and today we are going to look at the People's Strength candidate Yoon Seok-yeol's pledge to abolish the leisure department.

In October of last year, People's Strength candidate Yoon Seok-yeol announced a pledge to reorganize the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as the 'Ministry of Gender Equality and Family'.

He said that he would rebalance the work and budget of the Ministry of Recreation.

However, on the 7th, he left 7 letters on his SNS, 'Abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family'.

It was short and intense.

Candidate Yoon's promise to abolish the leisure department had a huge impact.

As the gender issue was re-ignited, it was evaluated that it became a variable in the political affairs of the final election.

Even today, the debate continues to grow, expand and reproduce online. 

The SBS fact-checking team also fact-checked several times regarding the controversy over the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

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What is the job of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family?

First, let's summarize the work of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

In fact, in November last year, the team analyzed and delivered the work focusing on the budget of the Ministry of Leisure in SBS 8 News.

However, at that time, the figures were before the 2022 budget bill was passed by the National Assembly, so the calculation was recalculated in consideration of the amendments made by the National Assembly.

First of all, the work of the Ministry of Leisure is classified into women's policy, empowerment, family policy, and youth policy.

The budget for the Ministry of Leisure in 2022 is KRW 1.465 trillion, or 0.24% of the total government budget.

The task that occupies the largest portion of the budget of the Ministry of Leisure is family policy, accounting for KRW 906.3 billion, or 61.9% of the total budget of the Ministry of Leisure.

Support for single-parent families was the largest with KRW 421.3 billion, followed by child care services with KRW 201.5 billion. 

The human rights promotion budget is a budget that supports victims of sexual violence, domestic violence, and violent crime.

A typical example is the budget of the Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center.

In the past three years, 79.2% of the victims who received help here were women and 20.8% of men.

The most controversial women's policy budget has been compiled separately.

Most of the money goes to supporting women who have lost their careers.

The purpose is to increase household income by helping women whose careers have been cut off due to pregnancy and childrearing.

History of job transfer by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family was established in 2001 during the Kim Dae-jung administration.

It originally started as a women's special committee under the direct control of the president, but the discussion accelerated as political parties clashed ahead with women's policy pledges ahead of the 16th general election in 2000.

The Grand National Party, the predecessor of the People's Power, also actively advocated for the establishment of a women's ministry.

There was no big difference in the social atmosphere at the time.

Thus, the Ministry of Health and Welfare transferred the work to protect victims of domestic and sexual violence and the housing issue for women from the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

During the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2004, the women's department grew in size.

Family and childcare work has been transferred from the Ministry of Health and Welfare for an integrated family policy.

In 2005, the name was changed from the Ministry of Gender Equality to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

When the Lee Myung-bak administration took office in 2008, the theory of the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family rose to the surface again.

In January of that year, when former President Lee Myung-bak was elected, a discussion ignited, saying, "The Ministry of Women is a department only for those who claim women's power."

In particular, the Lee Myung-bak administration's organizational restructuring was based on the principle of 'the government's principle' that unifies the work of ministries, but the Ministry of Recreation and leisure became the target of restructuring.

In January 2008, then-President-elect Lee Myung-bak visited the Democratic Party of Korea and asked for cooperation, saying, "The Ministry of Women is a department only for those who assert women's power."

Three days later, 130 GNP lawmakers also proposed an amendment to the Government Organization Act, which abolished the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and transferred women's policies and childcare policies to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

However, several issues were raised, such as bloat with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and opposition from women's groups, and the opposition and opposition parties reached an agreement to preserve the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

President-elect Lee Myung-bak and the Presidential Transition Committee advocated the principle of ministries and ministries to create a small and efficient government by minimizing the number of ministries.

Therefore, it was a fact from the outset that childcare work was transferred to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which is in charge of the low fertility and aging population. 

- Won Won-yeon, In-ja Hwang <The Politics of Organizational Reorganization of Central Administrative Organizations: Focusing on Organizations in charge of Childcare and Family Policy>, Korean Politics Research Vol. 19, No. 2, 2010

In the end, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family transferred the family and childcare work to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

At that time, the Ministry of Health and Welfare became a huge ministry, and received tasks for youth that the National Youth Committee was in charge of and the Ministry of Planning and Budget for the polarization countermeasures headquarters.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family changed its name to 'Ministry of Gender Equality and Family' as the family business was separated.

At that time, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family was not in a situation to discuss the workload because the ministry was in crisis of existence, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare took a relatively loose strategy in the transfer process because the scope of its duties was wide and vast. 

- Won Won-yeon, In-ja Hwang <The Politics of Organizational Reorganization of Central Administrative Organizations: Focusing on Organizations in charge of Childcare and Family Policy>, Korean Politics Research Vol. 19, No. 2, 2010

However, two years later, the problem of work imbalance between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Gender Equality resurfaced.

At the time, President Lee Myung-bak proposed a plan to transfer the family policy, which had been transferred to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as well as youth policy to the Ministry of Gender Equality.

Former President Lee Myung-bak giving a speech at the 45th National Women's Congress in November 2009.

Former President Lee said at this meeting, "We are considering transferring policies closely related to women, such as families and youth, to the Ministry of Gender Equality."

The following year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family changed its name to the 'Ministry of Gender Equality and Family' again as the work of family policy and youth policy was transferred.

The work of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which is currently in operation, maintains the organizational structure of the time.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family was abolished, and what happened after that?

In the end, if you look at the history of the reorganization of the leisure department, you realize that the word 'abolition' is virtually non-existent. 

Even if it's not a women's policy, it's clear where the family policy, youth policy, and rights promotion work should be done.

Right now, dual-income couples are receiving child care support, and the abolition of the Ministry of Leisure cannot eliminate this business.

The same goes for support for single-parent families and building a social safety net for youth.

These three projects account for nearly 60% of the Ministry's budget.

It would also be inefficient to replace business personnel.

Gender equality and women's policy, which are controversial, account for only 7% of the work.

In the end, rather than 'abolition' of a specific government department, it would be more accurate to say 'transfer' a specific task.

For this reason, there was also a demand for Candidate Yoon to come up with a clear alternative to the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Candidate Seok-Yeol Yoon presented a detailed roadmap on his SNS that he would create a new ministry to comprehensively deal with issues of children, families, and population decline after the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Let's take a closer look at this word.

In fact, the team investigated the departments in charge of families, children, population decline, and, to be more precise, the low birth rate by government department, and thought that it might be difficult to establish an integrated policy because of the divisions between departments. 

It is true that the above tasks are distributed among the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in charge of family policy, the Ministry of Health and Welfare in charge of welfare, and even the Ministry of Education in charge of education.

This issue has been raised several times in academia as well.

Based on age criteria, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is in charge of child protection-related tasks and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is in charge of protection policies for adolescents.

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In the case of Korea …

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Support systems are all separate and not linked or integrated, and since they have been entrusted to the private sector from the time of establishment of the system, they have fatal limitations in that the state lacks public character and accountability in all processes from reporting to investigation decisions.

- Ryu Jeong-hee et al., <International Comparative Study of Child Protection Systems to Overcome Low Fertility: Focusing on Comparison between Korea, China and Japan>, Research Report of Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs, 2015 

In the end, I believe that Candidate Yoon's promise to create a new government department that will manage the family, children, and low fertility issues in an integrated way is meaningful enough.

However, this scenario is also in line with the history of 'business transfer' by government departments discussed earlier.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has already been pushing the issues of family, children, and low fertility. There are also the most related experts in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Then, in the end, the government reorganization that Candidate Yoon is talking about may be more efficient if other tasks are transferred to the existing Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and then the department name is changed. For example, the Ministry of Health and Welfare's work on children and low fertility is transferred, and the Ministry of Education's children's work is transferred to it.

Whether the controversial women's policy work is given to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, or the existing new ministries are embracing it, there are many possible cases to consider. Considering that, it is not a big variable.

In other words, it is difficult to recall the number of promises made by Candidate Yoon, other than the method of changing the company signboard after the existing Ministry of Gender Equality and Family took over and merged other sectors. If so, this scenario could be 'politically' to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, but it is closer to 'substantially' changing the name to expand and reorganize the existing Leisure Ministry. 

The reorganization of the government, which will begin with the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, no matter what happens, means that it will have no choice but to focus on the current organizational basis of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. 

Of course, the political needs of community members are also important and, if necessary, should be considered as a policy.

The name of the Buddha also reflects the sentiments of the community, so it should be looked at carefully.

However, the media and academia believe that it is necessary to accurately assess the practical effect.

For this purpose, I hope you understand that the effectiveness of the organizational reorganization was evaluated.

The SBS Fact-Eun team is pursuing fact-checking that goes beyond simply determining facts and lies, and unraveling the various layers of the world we live in.

You can request a fact check verification by typing SBS facts on the Internet.

If you request it, we will fact-check it to the best of our ability.

<Main Sources>

2022 Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Budget

Won Won-yeon, Hwang In-ja <The Politics of Reorganization of Central Administrative Organizations: Focusing on Organizations in Charge of Childcare and Family Policy>, Korean Politics Research Vol. 19 No. 2, created in 2010

, <2008 Government Influencing Factors of Organizational Structure>, Proceedings of the Korean Society for Public Administration Planning Seminar, 2008,

Ryu Jeong-hee et al., <International Comparative Study of Child Protection Systems to Overcome Low Fertility: Focusing on the Comparison between Korea, China and Japan>, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs Research Report, 2015