십대/여성 정책의 도전과 과제: 적극적 조치, 실질적 평등의 관점을 중심으로

Abstract

This thesis is based on the problem that issues revolving around teenage women have been dealt with only within the limited context of "protecting adolescent sexuality." This study is thus designed not only to argue the necessity of specific policies targeting teenage women but to discuss policy missions, direction, contents, and challenges. Taking the affirmative action perspective, teenage women as a target of the policy need to be redefined as the object of "differential consideration," in light of changing the generally accepted notion rooted in sexism and occupational gender segregation. Meanwhile, we also need to recognize the fact that the teenage women policy should be engaged with a social welfare perspective on human rights, noting the fact that teenage women have been discriminated against based on their age, being denied their citizenship as members of a society. However, it is crucial to take into account that this policy should be challenged due to the form it has maintatined: protective, adult-centric, and residual. The experiences and issues that teenage women have are intrinsically linked instead of being fragmented. Thus there needs to be an integrated viewpoint which adopts the notion that issues such as adolescent prostitution, teenage runaway, pregnancy, and substance abuse are interlocking and interrelated. To achieve substantial equality, we should allow a "positive/progressive approach" to emerge instead of a "negative/regressive approach." Accordingly, teenage women policies are required to fully incorporate relevant perspectives including gender (equality) awareness, differential consideration of alternative social identities, and participation and sharing of teenage women, throughout the process of making and implementing the policy. In addition, recognizing the limits of the policy which has mainly focused on the wellbeing of adults, not teenage women, the policy on teenage women should alternatively stand for the "ethics of relationships" between adults and teenagers. By reflecting on various differences among teenage women as well as reconsidering the hierarchy which makes the voice of teenage women unheard, only then can the policy take a new level of challenging the present condition of teenage women and their human rights as the underprivileged.