• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.41-77
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• 2021

It has been 20 years since the gender quota system for expanding women's political representation was enacted. However, the proportion of Korean women's representatives has not exceeded 20 percent. This study examines how the gender quota system, public funding for women candidates, and public funding for women's development, which are the three pillars of the legal system to expand women's representation, have changed systematically over the past 20 years, how they affected women's representation, and what institutional limitations they have. In addition, it explores the im/possible conditions of reforms for expanding women's representation. To reform the legal system for women's representation, it is necessary to understand that Korea's political system is arranged in a gender-based way in a male-dominated structure, while also understanding that the existence of critical actors and mass driving reforms for gender equality in politics is essential.