Three male students preparing for law school in 2010 filed a suit against the Ewha Law School on September 8, calling for the suspension of the year 2010 recruiting of Ewha Law School. They also requested the Constitutional Court of Korea to remove Ewha Law School of its gender restriction in admissions.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) allowed 25 universities to open graduate law schools last year and Ewha Law School was approved a quota of 100 students. Of all the law schools approved, Ewha Law School is the only one that does not allow the entrance of male students. Ewha Law School was opened this spring semester and initiated the admission of students under the goal of educating future women leaders in the field of law. The school has started the 2010 admission from October 5 and will announce the result on December 16.
Song and two other male students, whose full names have not been disclosed to the public, argued that Ewha Law School takes up 100 among the total 2000 spots open for law school admissions, which lessens the possibility of male students to enter law schools. They claim that this is an explicit act of gender discrimination because female students are given a better chance to enter law schools than male students.
“We need an equal opportunity for male and female students to enter law schools. The entrance qualification for Ewha Law School discriminates male students and needs to be either abolished or open to both genders,” said Song.
Meanwhile, Ewha Law School refutes their arguments. They state that as it is the only women law school approved by the MEST, Ewha Law School should be a solution to the issue of discriminating women in Korea where men mainly lead the field of law. The rate of women in the National Assembly and the field of law linger at 13 and 17 percent respectively and this demonstrates women’s low proportion compared to that of males.
According to the statistics of last year’s law school entrance, male students took up over 60 percent of those accepted to law school while female students took over only 39 percent.
“The current number of female students involved in the law area is noticeably low than that of male students. Ewha Law School is an environment for female students to raise their own voices,” said Professor Kim Moon-hyun (Law), the dean of Ewha Law School.
“Also, Ewha Law School cannot be an example of sexual discrimination because it was not approved by the government for its feature as a women’s university but solely for its superior achievements and records in the past,” said Kim.
저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지