1.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced the results of the 2021 gender equality survey.
The law mandates that it be done once every five years, but it was first conducted in 2016 and this is the second survey.
This is a significant survey as it is the basis of the 'Basic Plan for Gender Equality Policy', which will require a large amount of budget for the next five years.
However, there were some notable results.
92% of Korean women answered that 'the current violence against women in our society is serious or very serious'.
For those in their teens to 40s, the figure was over 95%.
This is a pretty serious result.
In the first survey five years ago, 88.8% of women gave the same answer, but the increase in that number over five years may mean that our society has gone backwards.
2.
Surveys and opinion polls tend to have different answers depending on how they were asked, the content of the question, or the method of asking the question.
You have to look into that part to read the meaning behind the result.
So, I got the survey question.
The entire questionnaire consists of a total of 24 chapters.
And that question is included in the 'Human Rights and Safety' section on page 15.
However
, the process leading to that question stands out.
First, we ask if you have experienced any type of sex-related crime and if you are concerned that such a problem might arise.
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After all these questions, you will be asked, 'What do you think about various types of violence against women?'
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3. Think from the perspective of the person taking this survey.
First, listen to the various dangerous situations that women may face one by one.
This is a fairly broad question, including whether you have experienced a direct sexual offense as well as whether you have experienced a 'threatening situation'.
Then you will come up with all those situations in your head.
In such a situation, the question arises, "What do you think the level of violence against women in our society is?"
It is a structure in which the number of cases where the answer is 'serious' naturally increases.
4. There is another part that was not pointed out in another report.
It is said that this survey was not a telephone or Internet survey, but an interview survey in which the researcher met with people and asked questions.
It means that after the investigator looked at her face and read the types of crimes women go through, she asked, "What do you think of the violence that women face in our society?"
Still, opinion polls tend to respond to opinions that are considered socially desirable rather than their own.
I want to be seen as a good person.
In particular, if you have responded to the 'Survey on Gender Equality by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family', you can take it as if you have to answer that there is a problem with gender equality in our society.
If so, efforts to make the investigation a little more
neutral should be included in the questions or methods.
If it is an interview survey, the bias will inevitably be strong in the composition of the questions that are not.
In the first survey in 2016, the questionnaire was also obtained to see if the composition of the questions was the same.
But back then, the questioning method was different.
First, we asked what they thought about violence against women.
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And that's followed by questions about specific types of crime.
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The survey method was reversed, and in this case, it would be a different survey, so comparison with the figures 5 years ago is meaningless.
6. We showed these questions to PMI, an opinion polling agency that conducts 8,000 surveys annually, and asked for their opinions.
Then
, the evaluation returned, saying, "Human rights experts may have participated in creating the questions, but it seems that the survey experts did not."
It was also referred to as “a typical case that shows that survey questions should not be structured like this in terms of research methods.”
He pointed out that this question right before the question of whether he has ever experienced a sexual offense is also a problem.
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Because the question was asked with a strong expression, the answer 'disagree' is overwhelmingly inevitable, and
it is a question that induces the desired response.
After raising negative feelings about violence with this question, I asked how they view violence against women.
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He also raised an issue with the question of whether he had experienced various sexual assaults.
Survey questions should be clear, simple in structure, and structured so as not to elicit the desired answer.
But the question is that the content is not clear.
This is because there is a slight difference between the case in which the respondent became a real victim and the case in which they felt threatened.
Also, as it is a sensitive question, it is also evaluated that the value of the question as a question decreases because there is little chance that the interviewer will answer the truth when asked directly.
7. So, do you think there are no problems in our society? Some of you may be asking questions like this.
In order to solve the urgent gender equality problem, there may be some who say that even if the method is slightly wrong, we should accept it.
That's not the story.
As it is such
a sensitive issue, unnecessary controversy can be reduced only by considering and using a more value-neutral and persuasive method.
This is especially true because it is a survey on which the budget is based on the policy to be put in.
The spread of the idea of “do you investigate and decide policies like that” spreads, and it can damage the trust of the government as a whole.
PMI, an opinion polling agency that sought advice, also suggested that the survey results should not be misinterpreted and transmitted to the public as the statistics are approved by state taxes.
He also pointed out that from the design of the survey, survey experts should participate and sufficiently reflect their opinions.
In addition to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family
It seems that it is necessary to nail down the way in which opinion poll experts participate from design to implementation in the survey conducted by all government agencies as a law or regulation.