Women are gaining more power in the 21st century of Korea. Many women are participating in the 17th Notional Assembly. Before the election began, we could predict that a large number of women would be elected for the 17th National Assembly under a proportional representation system.

As women extend their influence upon the National Assembly, which used to have the least partici- pation of women, a new breeze is starting to blow in what used to be the male-dominated political arena of Korea. Now three political parties have a woman as of their spokesman and two parties have women in the top command. The Grand National-Hannara Party elected Park Geun-hye as their new leader and Chu Mi-ae was the Chairman of an Election Committee of New Millennium Democracy Party in this 17th National Assembly.

We call them the leading women. They show people confidence that women have equal ability to men. As a matter of fact, they are representations of women being new, moral, and clean as politicians in contrast to some corrupted congressmen in the old days. As women are gaining more power, it is important for us not to devaluate them just because of wide spread bias of mistrust against women.

To get over the public opinion that women in each party are less capable than men but are chosen as token women, the policy and legislation have to guarantee the fool-proof system for any prejudice against women. Leading women in return also need to have the right awareness about themselves.
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