When Ahn Mi-soo, 29, overheard her male colleagues talk about the sexual abuse scandal involving ex-presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung, she couldn’t help but cringe.

“They were saying casually that things were kind of blown out of proportion for something that could have been let by,” Ahn said.

While accompanying President Park Geun-hye on her U.S. visit last month, he allegedly sexually assaulted a Korean-American who was hired to help the Seoul delegation in Washington. U.S. police are investigating the case.

“I don’t personally experience sexual harassment at work, but my colleagues’ exchanges gave me a bitter feeling that things still haven’t changed in how such things are perceived,” Ahn said.

The scandal sent shockwaves throughout the country and forced the president to apologize and replace her top public relations official who is Yoon’s supervisor.

On one hand, the incident allowed a peek into how society perceives sexual harassment, and more fundamentally how gender is construed at workplaces.

“Yoon’s case epitomized the classic case of sexual harassment involving those in power,” said Park Seon-young, chief of the Center for Human Rights Policy at the Korean Women’s Development Institute.

“The alleged offender denied any wrongdoing and instead claimed it was only a gesture of encouragement. Gossip that the alleged victim may have had other motives or rumors surrounding the identity of the accuser has inflicted secondary damage to the victim.” 

The debacle took a more bizarre turn when the government lowered the number of female interns hired for the prime minister’s trip to Thailand later in the month.

According to the sexual harassment white paper by the National Human Rights Commission last year, 50.3 percent of harassment cases occur in the workplace. Nearly 20 percent takes place at dinner outings with coworkers and 4.2 percent at education or training facilities. The report also indicated that power plays a significant role in sexual harassment, with 61.1 percent of cases involving a boss and an employee.

A survey conducted last year by an employment website (www.career.co.kr) showed that 4 out of 10 workers have experienced sexual harassment. Of the 405 that were surveyed, 72.6 of those that were harassed were women while 27.4 percent were men. Nearly 79 percent of the offenders were “bosses” while 13.4 percent were business owners, 6.7 percent coworkers and 1.2 percent subordinates. The form of harassment ranged from excessive physical contact to sexual jokes and remarks critiquing looks.

Korea began to legally acknowledge sexual harassment in 1995, through the enactment of the framework act on women’s development on Dec. 30. It was triggered by the first-ever sexual harassment lawsuit in October 1993, when a teaching assistant at a university filed a complaint against a professor. The professor repeatedly made inappropriate physical contact and gave lewd glances, and when the assistant refused, she wasn’t rehired. The assistant, after a five-year legal battle, achieved a partial win.

The law now states that sexual harassment is when any member of a state organization makes the other party feel sexual humiliation or aversion with verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature, or puts the other party at a disadvantage in employment for not complying with such action or demands.

Kim Hyun-ah, 38, said she believed sexual harassment stems from a deeper issue that is reflected in the way many men perceive their female coworkers.

“When I attend a business meeting, all the other members are usually male and mostly more senior than I. Every time I go in, they greet me in an exaggerated manner and make comments like, ‘the room is much more colorful with you,’ or ‘you are so dazzling, I don’t know where to look.’”

Although she knows they mean no harm and are even trying to compliment her, Kim always felt queasy, questioning whether they would have said the same if a man came in, and whether the same discrepancy would affect their treatment to her as a business partner later on.

Jeong Hee-jin, a lecturer of gender studies, said that harassment fundamentally stems from the male-centric way of thinking that remains embedded after centuries of male dominance. Korea’s male-centered social order emerged in the 17th century, when neo-Confucianism began taking root.

“The biggest structural cause of sexual harassment is the analysis of a female’s body from a male’s point of view,” she said, citing how male is usually identified as a person, whereas female is identified specifically by gender when describing someone in Korean.

Because women are perceived from such a point of view, they are evaluated not only on ability, but first on weight, face, body type, attire and attitude, whereas a man is assessed on money, ability and knowledge, according to Jeong.

“The reason why women are sensitive to gender is because of the double standard that gender has. While our society is extremely lenient in terms of sexuality for men, it is utterly merciless for women.”

An example is the so-called “jeobdae” culture, where male business partners would treat each other to drinking parlors with paid female escorts without qualms. Although the culture has significantly dwindled in recent years, a survey by the Korea Institute of Public Finance in April showed that room salons, or luxury drinking parlors, was still the No. 1 expense of a company’s entertainment budget, at 923.7 billion won in 2011. The report pointed out that excessive jeobdae culture will lead to abnormal expansion of the industry, which will raise various social problems in fair trade, social ethics and sex trade.

Observers argue that such culture could distort men’s perception of women, such as by dichotomizing the perception of women between “rest (home)” and “entertainment.”

“Even when a woman is at work, she is considered from a personal realm … when a man orders a woman coworker to fetch coffee or touches her buttocks, it is because he views her personally as a woman and less as a coworker,” Jeong said.

“The first level of judgment of whether or not it constitutes sexual harassment does not lie in the context. Rather, it depends on whether or not the alleged afflicter treated the accuser as gender neutral,” she added.

As such “uncomfortable cohabitation” of men and women at workplaces continue to surge, more men are forced into confusion as well.

Of 11 male office workers questioned by The Korea Herald last week, eight of them responded that they felt uncomfortable around female coworkers.

“It is very difficult to approach female coworkers because I might be misunderstood,” said Lee Joo-hyung, 30, who works in finance.

Another respondent in his mid-30s, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed.

“There are times when I feel uncomfortable. There can be unintentional physical contact when working together and I worry that (she) may think otherwise.”

Other responses included how they sometimes felt it unfair when female coworkers ironically expect special treatment by emphasizing the gender role.

What’s more, an increasing number of men are also said to suffer from sexual harassment as more women assume leadership posts.

Lee Jung-hyeon, 30, recalled the discreet dismissal of a female boss after one of the male subordinates filed a complaint against her with the company for incessant sexual harassment such as making lewd comments and inappropriate physical contact.

“Our workplace has more women than men, and naturally as women tend to go up the ladder, they seem somehow compelled to act on it,” Lee said, who did not want to disclose her company name.

Park Seon-young of the KWDI said that a single gender cannot be placed at blame for such phenomena.

“It is true that some women may choose to use their femininity to their advantage at workplaces, but on the flip side, they may have been forced to rely on her gender from the start, as they are not perceived as the same level of partner. The most important thing is to create a culture where people work together as gender equal,” she added.

Whether it is the historical gender biasness or the “aphrodisiac” nature of power (as experts often quote Henry Kissinger as saying), Jeong Hee-jin stressed that the most important perception of all is to recognize sexual harassment as a crime.

“Gender violence like sexual harassment is simply a crime. It is a violation of human rights against the other person and an illegal act that is subject to punishment, not an apology. Only is sexual harassment a crime that is often claimed as a show of friendliness, leading it to occur much more extensively and naturally.”

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)