It is the job of the city councilor to make ordinances necessary for citizens and review whether the budget of the city is appropriately spent. Ultimately, they work for the welfare of the citizens. For Seoul citizens’ better life, Ewha alumna Hwang You-jung is working as a councilor of the Seoul Metropolitan Council. She became a Seoul Metropolitan Councilor in July 2022and has been working in the position ever since.
Hwang graduated from the Department of Political Science & International Relations and earned a master’s degree in the Department of social welfare and a doctorate in East Asian Studies. Putting her majors to work, Hwang is recently dealing with health policies, welfare policies, and women and family policies as the commissioner of the Health & Welfare Committee.
After graduating from graduate school, she continued her career as a political party member and worked to develop various policies, and finally became a city councilor last year.
“I have long wanted to be a Seoul Metropolitan councilor and add the value of future and women to the significance of Seoul,” Hwang explained. “Seoul has always been the heart of Korea and its benchmark for leading the nation in economic, political, and cultural aspects. I want to contribute to making change and growth to open the future of Seoul and make higher its brand value.”
Hwang added that she wants to move toward harmony and balance by adding women’s perspectives to the policy-making process where men’s perspectives were dominant for a long time.
With the advent of the 4th industrial revolution era, she emphasized that it is necessary to foster women as new digital human resources. Since digital technology will become an essential capital in the future era, she thinks that the government should step up and start supporting women to develop as digital talents. Hwang stressed that it is something the Seoul Metropolitan Government should take the lead, and she would like to prepare and enact an ordinance so that the government can implement policies to foster digital female talent in the future.
Although it has been only a half year, she explained that it was enough time for her to feel the weight of responsibility as a councilor. From her perspective, since Seoul is such a large and wide city, there were many policies to study and sites to visit.
“I was told to apply for a camp bed once I became a councilor,” she said. “At first, I was confused as to why it was necessary. However, I quickly understood through the preparation process for the administrative audit-I often had to stay up all night because of the vast amount of data.”
Attending Ewha both as an undergraduate and a graduate student, Hwang has always felt Ewha as a part of her identity and a place where her own philosophy and values were completed. Her time in Ewha enabled her to develop the power to lead a self- directed life and improve her leadership especially through doing departmental representative activities during her undergraduate years.
Lastly, for Ewha students studying hard for their future, as the most important thing of all time is to increase the value of oneself, Hwang encouraged students to “be yourself.” Furthermore, she said that she wants students to know that it is important to make a new frame of thinking, such as understanding human beings and growing insights about the view of society, country, and the world while studying to be a professional of their sector in university.
“If you have a framework of thinking that allows you to view the world and organize it from your own perspective, you can live a life where you love yourself and win at life without getting swayed and frustrated,” Hwang said.