Ulsan Metropolitan City Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom came under fire for making controversial remarks saying that it is difficult to deploy personnel for wildfire suppression because “there are many female employees.”
The comment was made during a briefing at the Forest Disaster Response Headquarters, as a wildfire in Onyang-eup in Ulsan entered its fourth day on Tuesday.
“There are limitations on the number of public officials we can mobilize when a wildfire breaks out in the region,” Kim said.
“And nowadays, there are many female employees, so it’s not easy to send them into rugged mountain areas,” adding that the dispatch of some 500 soldiers from nearby army and marines helped to manage the mop-up operations at the scene. “I want to take this opportunity to thank the officers who mobilized the military personnel.”
Kim’s comments quickly drew criticism online, with many accusing him of sexism.
One of the online comments left on the Ulsan city government’s website said, “if it’s hard to put out the fire because there are too many female employees, then why doesn’t the mayor — being a man — go do it himself?”
But the criticism focused not just on gender roles, but also about the government’s preparedness and approach to disaster response in general.
It is common to deploy public officials, who are not specialists in fire containment, to help with the efforts.
“Why are public officials, not trained firefighters, being deployed to a fire scene, regardless of gender?” asked one user.
Some online comments pointed out that even physically strong men, without proper training, would find it dangerous to hike into steep mountainous terrain to fight a fire.
“What’s the point of bringing up female employees at all?” another online commenter asked.
ddd@heraldcorp.com
