여성노동관계법 60년사의 성찰

This article aims to reflect on 60 years history of Korean Labor Law with a focus on how laws regarding the female labor was formed and developed and what its outcomes and problems are, and then to try to find which actions will need to solve female labor problems and to secure women’s right to work. Female workers have suffered from not only labor problems as workers or applicants in order to live in capitalist societies but also female problems as women in patriarchal societies. It is difficult to find a job for a woman, and many female workers work in the low pay jobs or as irregular workers. In addition, they become the subject of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and women are prevented from seeking jobs due to marriage, pregnancy, child birth, child care and the like. In Spite of it, those who lead lawmaking, jurisdiction, administration, labor movement and jurisprudence were indifferent to the female labor problems. Thus, feminists including legal experts and activists of women's organizations have tried aggressively to solve the female labor problems and to secure women's human rights including the right to work and gender equality including to prepare bills meeting international standards, to push through the bills and to file various lawsuits. As a result, a lot of labor laws regarding to female have formed and developed. The 60 years history of labor law regarding female labor is categorized as the formative period (1953-1979), the period of development (1980-1989), the period of expansion(1990-2000), the period of progressive maintenance(2001-2007), and the period of stagnation (2008-August 2013). At present, the current labor laws regarding female are positively evaluated that their outward development level reach up to international standards, but they have lots of problems in improving conditions of female labor. From now on, the history of labor law regarding female has to be the process of realizing the gender-equal society and developing lawmaking, jurisdiction, administration, and jurisprudence concerning labor by cooperating with male/female workers and law professionals sharing the awakening on female labor problems.