Special Lecture and Luncheon Gathering with Mr. and Ms. Irish Ambassad…

Since some Board members go to Ireland to attend WCI Board Meeting in May this year, WKIC wanted to find out more about Ireland and its ongoing effort on political policies and Women's empowerment. We invited His Excellency Julian Clare, asked 

him to share his idea, and gathered together in Seoul Club on April 18th at 11am. 

He started his speech < Ireland: The Long Road to Gender Equality> with some famous riddle that goes along like this - A 

father and son have a car accident and are both badly hurt. They are both taken to separate hospitals. When the boy is taken 

in for an operation, the surgeon says "I cannot do the surgery because this is my son". How  is this possible? People used to

spend hours thinking about answers to this question. Was the boy adopted? Was the surgeon his stepfather? Eventually, the 

answer was revealed that the surgeon was his mother. It seems so obvious when you know, but down the years, it is extraordinary how many people tried to think of every scenario imaginable except that of a female doctor.-  The riddle actually had us look at our own attitude and expectation  and made us see how  important changing attitudes and expectations is. His excellency says that gender equality and women's empowerment has to be something that everyone is engaged in, which cannot be a top down directive, a task to be performed or the subject of an instruction.  

He also said that Ireland had gone through a lot of change ever since  joining European Union in 1973. By getting the support 

from the EU's structural and cohesion funds, Ireland was able to open up their way of thinking economically on top of raising 

the standard of living  and improving national infrastructure. Along with economic prosperity, Ireland was committed to political gender quota and reducing the gap between male and female participation rates in the workforce and the gender pay gap.By 

looking at what people contribute, not how many hours they work, or appear to be working and with the new scheme of paternity leave,  he believes, the Government has taken a big step toward "Balance for Better", the United Nation's theme for  International Women's Day 2019. 

There was a vital discussion  on education, childcare, abortion, paternity leave, and specific political women's policies between two countries and Ms. Siobhan Tracey also took a part on the details of education and some life issues in Ireland. 31 participants seemed so thrilled and actively engaged in a conversation afterwards during the luncheon. 

It was such a fun gathering on such a fine spring day with some cherry petals dancing with the breeze!