I have read a few interesting articles in recent days about gender equality in South Korea. The first of which was an article from Groove Magazine about the creation of women friendly parking lots. The city of Iksan has created 25 "women friendly" parking lots which are identifiable by their pink lines. As quoted from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, "The spots are 2.5 meters wide instead of the standard 2.3 offering aid to women drivers unskilled at parking." That sounds a little sexist don't you think? On the positive side of this the city also plans to install 34 new street lights and 194 new CCTV lamps. The second article I stumbled across on Korea Beat, an website of popular Korean news translated into English, was about making female public washrooms equal to those of men in terms of number, quality and cleanliness. The article also mentions retrofitting 51 KM of sidewalk within Seoul to accommodate women who wear high heal shoes! I have never worn high heeled shoes but I am sure that this is slightly ridiculous. However, as with the last news article there are some positive initiatives being undertaken. One of which is the creation of 343 new public parks, the government offering food aid to single mothers and providing affordable state-run daycare, similar to that of Quebec. It's quite the grab bag of positives and negatives but I sincerely hope the good outweighs the ridiculous.