[내돈내삶] Yeonji Lee’s sister car project planner
Driving a safer, more free life
Lee Yeon-ji, the planner of the women’s Lee Dong-kwon project’Sister Tea’.
What women need now is my money, not my parents’ money and my husband’s money. In a male-centered and patriarchal society, women’s’my money’ is not a simple’asset’, but a tool for independent and independent’my life’. In 1929, “British Woman” Virginia Woolf, in a book, said that in order to do what she wanted to do, she needed her own room and 500 pounds a year. In these words, it is my own space and cost of living. ‘My Money, My Life’ tells the story of a woman or a group that guides women in their financial independence and independent life.
“There are times when I have to drive. When I try to ask about a car, I have only dad, brother, and men. However, when you ask a question, there are times when the feeling of thinking,’I don’t know because I’m a woman’, is implicitly revealed. In that case, I thought it would be nice to have an older sister who could comfortably ask.” On the 19th, I met Lee Yeon-ji (36), the organizer of the women’s Lee Dong-kwon project’Sister Tea’. At Mark 69, a cultural complex in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, where various automobile-related accessories such as handles, tires, and model cars are displayed, we talked about the mobility of automobiles and women.
“Don’t go late, you have to have a guardian next to you to go late. You hear a lot of things like this. It seems that women have been viewed as protected persons and have not been encouraged to drive.” Mr. Lee saw that there are social practices that do not encourage women to drive. I wanted to change this practice. With six years of driving experience, he started a’sister car’ last year by conspiring with two fellow women for a youth participation platform project by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The slogan is’Dad tea, sister tea, not brother tea’. It attracted the participation and support of many women by planning maintenance classes and car wash meetings, taught by a 30-year-old female mechanic. Currently, 36 women are gathered under the name’Sister Cha’.
Participants are learning maintenance at the one-day class for automobile maintenance that the sister car project opened on November 7th last year. Unnicha’s Instagram
Men’s Class 1 License, Women’s Class 2 License?
Being able to drive to the place you want to go freely increases your freedom of life. As Lee started driving, she was able to further expand her own path, which only moved within the public transport network. Feel free to leave wherever you want, when you want. Mr. Lee said, “The bag I was carrying has also become smaller. “Because I can carry most things in my car,” he laughed wide. Unpleasant experiences such as sexual harassment in public transportation were also avoided. “For safety, I tell women to go home early. But actually, getting in early by taxi is sometimes more dangerous. There are occasional molestations on the bus next to you. In fact, if you have a car, you can avoid these things.”
Driving culture, automobile culture and sexism are inseparable. I enrolled in a first class license course at a driving school to get a driver’s license, but I had to hear the story of’because I’m a woman so register class 2′, meeting a male driver who made a physical threat to a female driver driving a light car… . All of this is what the women around, including Lee Yeon-ji and reporters, actually experienced. “There is an atmosphere in which the car itself is perceived as something of a man. I think a man knows something about machines. When you go to the automotive community, there are only men. Most of them get a driver’s license after completing the SAT or go to college, but there are cases where men recommend class 1 to women and class 2 to women.” In popular terms, it is possible to detect how serious the discrimination faced by female drivers is. A typical term for a poor driver is’Mrs. Kim’.
One-day class held by the Sister Car Project in November of last year. Unnicha’s Instagram
In the meantime, women have passed the age of riding their father’s car when they were young and driving their husband’s car when they married. There were few opportunities to widen the scope of women’s own activities, and it affected women’s social participation and economic activities. The Saudi Arabian example shows exactly this reality. Until only three years ago, Saudi Arabia did not issue drivers’ licenses to women. Even foreigners couldn’t drive in Saudi Arabia if they were women. Women had to hire separate drivers to move around. Through the long efforts of human rights activists In June 2018, Saudi Arabia first legalized women’s driving. At the time, it was analyzed that “this measure will increase women’s participation in society and revitalize the economy.”
The weapon on the road is’knowledge’
Sister Cha is planning to hold a seminar this year that teaches drivers how to deal with legal knowledge or accidents that they should be familiar with. When there is a problem between drivers, there are many drivers who yell or threaten the other driver. Yunji Lee hopes that knowing life laws such as the Road Traffic Act will make it easier to solve when an accident occurs or a quarrel with another driver occurs. “When there’s an argument on the road, it’s easy for women to say,’It’s because you can’t drive,’ but that’s not true. Even if you know the legal knowledge well, you can cope with it wisely in the event of an accident.” For example, if you are stopped in front of a traffic light and suddenly the car behind you hits a bumper, don’t be surprised. Under the Road Traffic Act, the vehicle behind the vehicle is obligated to secure a safe distance, so in the event of a collision, the vehicle behind the vehicle is not able to maintain the distance between vehicles. If you know common sense of the law and how to deal with an accident, you can respond without trembling to the reaction of a blindly angry rear car. There is no need to unnecessarily repeat “I’m sorry” because of embarrassment. Yeonji Lee told the other driver that he did not need to be frustrated. “You shouldn’t blindly say’I’m sorry’ to someone with a loud voice. “It’s because it’s like admitting wrongdoing,” he said, saying that women can be more confident on the road. By Kim Mi-hyang, [email protected] ▶Shortcuts : [내돈내삶] Serialization
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