A Seoul appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision to order disciplinary action against a male sergeant for sexually harassing his female superior in 2014. The sergeant had claimed the decision was unfair and asked the disciplinary order to be revoked.

The case is one of the relatively rare sexual harassment cases in Korea in which the victim was harassed by someone of a lower rank at work. The victim, an army captain and one of the sergeant’s superiors at his unit, filed a complaint against him in September 2014.

According to court documents, the sergeant would ask her to “hold, or touch, his hand” in front of other soldiers on several occasions. When she told him to stop, he told her, “What’s wrong with a captain shaking hands with a sergeant?”  In the same month, the sergeant had said to his superior, “If you have a fiancee, isn’t it better (to have sex with him) at an expensive motel room?”

“I felt sexually violated by both his behavior and his remarks about the motel room,” the victim wrote in her complaint against him, which was submitted to the commanding officer of the unit.

The sergeant eventually received disciplinary action -- a suspension of three days -- but appealed against the court decision. He claimed he was simply asking for a “handshake” and had no intention of harassing his superior.



The appeals court, however, concluded that asking to hold his hand is not behavior that is generally accepted as appropriate in the military, especially from someone of a lower rank to his or her superior.

“We also conclude that his remarks on motels had sexual connotations that could make the female feel uncomfortable.”

Sexual harassment is largely considered as an abuse of power, rather than an issue involving sex. Yet in South Korea, 21.9 percent of all reported perpetuators of workplace sexual harassment from 2012-2015 were those who were of a lower rank than the victims, according to a study by the Gender Ministry. While 42.9 percent of the attackers were the victims’ superiors, 98 percent of all perpetuators were male, while 73.9 percent of them were in their 40s or older.

A 1989 study of 100 female factory workers in the U.S. said that “no matter how many men they encounter in the workplace, women who hold jobs traditionally held by men are far more likely (to be) harassed by men” than women who do “women’s jobs.”

As of last year in Korea, female commissioned officers in the South Korean military only accounted for 7 percent of all officers in the country. Also as of last year, women physicians accounted for only 24.7 percent of all doctors here.

Lee Mi-jeong, a researcher at the Women’s Development Institute, said the specific case is similar to previously reported cases where female teachers were sexually harassed by their male students, especially those who teach in all-boys schools.

“In most cases sexual harassment in the workplace takes a form of power abuse,” she said. “But I think the work culture -- and whether or not women are majority or minority within the group – matters as well. The fact that the female captain was harassed in spite of her higher rank just reflects how male-dominated (and sexist against women) the military is as a workplace.”
By Claire Lee(dyc@heraldcorp.com)