Dear _________,
I hope your day is going better than mine. It started to rain while we were on the way to school. I forgot my umbrella at home. It was raining pretty heavily, and I got my new sneakers all dirty. I was pretty sad about it, but it is fine now. I texted my mom, and she said she would help me clean them when I get home. Today, I have a very specific question. In your country, how is the gender equality? In Korea, we still have a big salary gap between women and men even if their qualifications may be the same or at least quite similar.
Also there are not many women leaders in the government compared to men. I think it is not good. In my country what makes me angry is how legal punishment for sexual abuse is not enough. Many other people find it inadequate so there are some protests and push for a policy to change. How is the gender equality situation in your country? What kind of policies are put in action to ensure gender equality? I really want to learn about it. I will wait for your reply!
Warm regards,
Jessica
Dear ________,
Oh my god! I am with you! Gender equality is an issue that I care a lot about too. I am a girl and I have three younger sisters. While my parents never made us not do anything or make us do something because we are girls, I see so many cases in the world where women are treated so unfairly. Not only that, I think because of the physical nature, women are often more vulnerable and are restricted or less supported in certain activities. For example, if you think about traveling, it can be more dangerous for women.
As a person who wants to travel all over the world as soon as I become old enough, I wonder if I will be okay to travel alone as a woman. I actually searched internet to find out what people are saying about a woman traveling alone. I found that in most of the big cities, it would be safe enough for me to travel alone as long as I am cautious of basic things, such as not trusting a stranger too much. However, for many other countries, including a few that I really want to visit, the online feedback was quite discouraging.
Fortunately, I also found out that there are some communities and businesses that try to solve this problem. One that caught my attention was NomadHer which is an app that helps solo female travelers share transportation, find safe accommodations, and connect with other solo female travelers to do activities together. As you know, I am a Korean and this app is created by a Korean. I found she went to Ewha Womans University which is my top college choice.
Anyways, if you have a chance, check it out. I think I will definitely use it when I become a university student. I want to hear about what you think about a woman traveling alone. Would it be safe for me to travel to your country alone? And what’s your top college choice, if you want to attend one? I look forward to your reply!
Warm regards,
Minkyoung
Dear ________,
How are you? First of all, I apologize for the delay in reply.
I have been very busy over the last two weeks because I was part of students organizing a campaign to ask our school to fire a teacher who sexually abused a student before.
As you may know, in our country just like many other parts in the world the #metoo movement got very big. Sadly, we became aware of a student who suffered from sexual abuse by a teacher at our school. However, the school principal did not take any action about it. This made many of us angry.
So we decided that we had to do something about it. The student government board took the initiatives and wrote a petition to get signs from students, teachers, and parents asking for this teacher to be fired. After about 2 weeks of campaign the principle finally apologized and fired the teacher. It was a reality check for us in terms of how sexual abuse of a man is still taken so lightly by some authorities.
However, we also learned that we have the power to correct the course and make changes through our collaborative actions and clear goals. So, I am very happy that I can write to you now about what happened with a positive result. I hope this news didn’t surprised yo too much. Have you ever felt strongly about a social injustice and did something about it? If so, I want to hear about your story. Take care until the next letter. I look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Subin