Han Becomes Korea's First Female Premier

[bemildred]

The National Assembly Wednesday approved President Roh Moo-hyun's nomination of Han Myeong-sook, a two-term female lawmaker of the governing Uri Party, as new prime minister.

Han, 62, replaces Lee Hae-chan who resigned last month after a controversial golf game with businessmen in Pusan.

The legislature voted 182 to 77 with 3 abstentions. Two votes were declared invalid. A total 264 votes were cast.

Korea Times

[woldnewton]

1. Progress abroad, little progress here...

Another country that's way ahead of the US in opening the door for women in the highest offices in the land!

I don't think we've seen anything good happen for women since Nancy Pelosi. Even Condosleeza's appointment as SoS was hardly a first, and can only qualify if you count both her gender *and* her ethnicity (I don't like the word 'race', cuz I believe there's only one 'race' -- the human race!).

The number of women in the US Senate stayed the same in '04 and it went up from a pathetically meager 64 to 68 in the House that same year. Since then, 2 more women have been elected in special elections, bringing it up to a barely better 70. Is Jean Schmidt the best we can do (not that I believe she actually won her race...)?


Meanwhile, here's two instances where women actually lost ground:

The number of women with governorships went down in 2004 from the high watermark of 9 down to 8.

The number of women on the US Supreme Court, of course, went down from 2 to 1 earlier this year, despite all the touting of Sandra Day O'Connor as the voice of 'independence' and the voice of 'moderation' (tell that to Al Gore), and O'Connor's own pushing for another woman to replace her (Ah, but we hardly knew ye, Harriet Miers; but perhaps that was a good thing after all...).

They're talking that perhaps 2006 will be the first 'year of the woman' since 1992 in American politics, but a good indictator of that will be how many people cross-vote for Francine Busby in June's special election.

I guess countries like Germany, Chile, and now South Korea are the only thing we can look forward to until the US gets its act together and elects more of the many qualified women this country has, that are ready and willing to serve...