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Diary of a Prosecutor: Episode 8

Today’s topic is sexism and misogyny in its various forms. Whether it’s an unfair assumption based on gender or outright sexual harassment, women are forced to put up with injustices on a regular basis. One of our prosecutors is at the end of her rope as she struggles to balance her work and personal life with little support or respect from those around her. When everything comes to a head, will her colleagues and family step up?

 
EPISODE 8

It’s 6:00 AM and Yoon-jin wakes to screaming babies. At 6:30, Jong-hak’s wife gets up to start making breakfast. Yoon-jin makes up bottles for the babies. Myung-joo’s alarm goes off at 7:00. Jong-hak’s wife drags him out of bed at 7:30.

Seon-woong and Jung-woo get up at 7:45 and head out to grab breakfast at 8:30. Myung-joo gets to the coffee shop at 8:40 and orders the usual. Meanwhile, Yoon-jin rushes out the door to the sound of babies wailing.

Everyone converges at the elevator with Yoon-jin literally sliding in right in the nick of time. Jong-hak has the nerve to actually suggest she wake up earlier so she doesn’t cut it so close. Not everyone is kindly woken up to a prepared breakfast, sir.

Seon-woong narrates that Jinyeong has a school and a girls’ school, police officers and female police officers, professors and female professors, and employees and female employees. The same goes for prosecutors.

Yoon-jin gets a call from her mother-in-law letting her know that Jae-hee has a fever. She wants to take the baby to the doctor’s, but she can’t handle taking them both. Yoon-jin tells her to wait it out for a bit.

In his office, Seon-woong uses his handy dandy carpenter’s ruler as a back scratcher. Man-ok gasps and smacks him. “Why didn’t you tell me you had this?!” Seon-woong: “What is it?” Wait, so he doesn’t even know he’s in possession of the all-powerful ruler?

We flash back to Seon-woong’s first day at the Jinyeong office. One of his desk drawers was jammed, and when he yanked it out, there was the ruler. He’d shoved it back in another drawer. In the present, Myung-joo’s words about him showing off the ruler in front of her finally make sense.

At the team meeting, Min-ho berates everyone (except Myung-joo) for the number of unsolved cases they accumulated last month. Yoon-jin flinches when he names her as the worst offender and demands an explanation. He notes that the past month’s numbers are particularly bad. Is there something wrong at home?

Min-ho: “I know it’s hard to raise kids and work but look at Seon-woong.” Despite his son’s unfortunate situation, his numbers didn’t change. Okay, Imma need this man to stop acting like their situations are comparable. Seon-woong’s kid doesn’t even live with him!

After the meeting, Seon-woong starts to bring up the ruler issue with Myung-joo but decides against it. In Jong-hak’s office, Yoon-jin vents about Min-ho constantly excluding her and singling her out for being a mom.

Seon-woong interviews a woman named Jung Yeon-ah who is pressing sexual harassment charges against a colleague. His advances had escalated until he kissed her at a noraebang. She kept the incident to herself, and no one witnessed it.

Seon-woong explains that her coworkers testified they had no idea anything happened since she behaved normally. “Do you think I’m lying too?” Seon-woong assures her that’s not the case; he’s only asking these questions per protocol. She doesn’t look convinced.

On her way out, she bumps into Jong-hak. She grabs his arm for a second before smiling politely and walking away. Later, he’s shocked to discover she’s a sexual harassment victim. “She didn’t look like one.” Yoon-jin asks if they’re supposed to look a certain way, and Min-ho cautions him not to talk like that.

Jong-hak says he just meant he didn’t get that vibe from her. “You’ll know when you see her.” Yoon-jin wants clarification. “You know, she’s the sexy type.” Oh, hell no. Yoon-jin asks if sexy women can’t be harassment victims, making Jong-hak stutter. He actually gets ickier and specifies that he’s talking about the type that “makes use of their gender.”

Yoon-jin just blinks at him until he backpedals and mentions Yeon-ah “touching” him. They’re all confused (and concerned), so he explains how Yeon-ah grabbed his arm when they bumped into each other. Everyone sighs and Min-ho warns him not to say stuff that’s misleading.

Jung-woo jokes that it could be a problem if it felt off-putting for Jong-hak when she touched him. EWW. The men laugh while the women do not. Yoon-jin cuts in angrily that he’s mocking victims. The men share a look as she continues that it’s never okay to joke about sexual harassment. Preach, sister.

Yoon-jin’s phone rings. The baby’s fever is still high, but her mother-in-law has back pain and can’t take the twins to a hospital. Min-ho gives her permission to go, and she runs out. Min-ho sighs that he’s worried about her.

The doctor prescribes cold medicine, and Yoon-jin heads back to work after dropping the baby back with her mother-in-law. Her investigator calls wondering where she is; the interviewee is waiting. Oops. Yoon-jin tells him to start without her.

Min-ho takes her to task for forgetting and making the interviewee wait for 30 minutes. She says she explained and apologized, but that just makes Min-ho madder. He thinks it would’ve been better if she’d pretended it wasn’t her interview in the first place.

Yoon-jin calls her husband to tell him not to come that weekend. And right as she hangs up, her mother-in-law calls to tell her the other baby has a fever. She gives herself a pep talk to get through the workday.

In the elevator, Myung-joo comments that being a working mom must be hard. She advises Yoon-jin to take a leave if she needs to—it’s better than having it affect her work. Yoon-jin says that’s too much coming from another woman. But Myung-joo claims that’s why she said it. She hates hearing men say, “This is why female prosecutors can’t do their jobs.”

Exhausted after taking her second screaming baby to the doctor’s, Yoon-jin falls asleep on the cab ride home. She does the dishes with a baby on her back as her mother-in-law encourages her to take a leave from work. That night, she somehow manages to soothe both screaming babies and sleep.

She wakes up the next morning to do it all over again. To make her day worse, she loses her hearing that day. As she walks out, she gets a call from her husband who came home after all. He chides her for not telling him the kids were sick.

Her mother-in-law takes the phone and orders her to come home early and bring groceries for her son’s dinner. When Yoon-jin politely reminds her she’s busy, her mother-in-law frustratedly says she’ll handle it then and hangs up.

Seon-woong meets with one of Yeon-ah’s sleazy colleagues who accuses her of flirting with all her male, senior colleagues. He calls the accused man “gentle.” Ugh.

When Yoon-jin gets back to the office, Myung-joo confronts her about the hearing. That man assaulted a woman over 10 times in a year—how was he acquitted? Was Yoon-jin distracted by her kids? The raised voices draw everyone out into the hallway.

Yoon-jin fires back it sounds like Myung-joo is blaming her. Myung-joo doesn’t deny it. “If it’s too much to raise kids and handle trials at the same time, let me know.” Yoon-jin asks if she’s accusing her of not being able to do her job because she’s a mom. “Is that not the case?” Whoa. Not cool.

Seon-woong ushers Min-ho to lunch when he comes upon the scene. The investigators have their own lunch and marvel over Myung-joo’s brutal truth-telling. But Man-ok asserts it’s not Yoon-jin’s fault but rather the government’s and theirs for not supporting her.

The government encourages women to have kids to raise the birthrate and expects mothers to bear the entire weight of raising them. Jung-hwan argues things are better these days, and another (male) investigator adds that Min-ho is “considerate.” Excuse me, sir? Man-ok: “If things were truly better and he truly considerate, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Min-ho complains to Seon-woong and Jong-hak about the state of their department over lunch. There’s so much fighting. Seon-woong defends himself, saying Myung-joo keeps acting aggressively toward him.

Jong-hak thinks that’s reasonable given he flaunted the carpenter’s ruler. Frustrated, Seon-woong blurts out that he just picked it up randomly. Min-ho freaks out since he even bragged about Seon-woong earning it to Chief Kim.

After lunch, Min-ho makes an awkward trip to Chief Kim’s to break the news. To his further embarrassment, Prosecutor Nam walks in. Rather than confessing the truth and facing Prosecutor Nam’s gloating and Chief Kim’s anger, he reveals that Seon-woong uses it as a bottle opener.

Chief Kim gets a kick out of that, but Prosecutor Nam is scandalized. Min-ho lies that Seon-woong said he sees it as a metal stick and has no intention to treat it as special. Chief Kim opines that they’ll never understand Seon-woong’s noble intentions. Pfft.

Seon-woong can’t believe Min-ho lied, comparing it to fraud or diploma forgery. Min-ho says what’s done is done and barely stops Seon-woong from marching over and revealing the truth. He begs Seon-woong to just keep quiet; he doesn’t have to lie.

When Seon-woong is still hesitant, Min-ho changes tack and blames Seon-woong for the whole debacle. How could he have graduated from Seoul National University without knowing about that ruler? Didn’t he have friends?

Later, Seon-woong and Man-ok interview the accused in the sexual assault case. He plays the innocent boss whose employee is out for revenge after being turned down for a promotion. He claims she’s the touchy-feely one, anyway, and blatantly denies any occurrences of harassment.

In the hallway, everyone heads out together. Yoon-jin, who coughs like she’s got a cold, asks where everyone’s going. Jong-hak shocks her by saying her husband is treating them to barbeque. Outside, she calls her husband who tells her his mom will babysit.

Her husband claims his mom suggested this for Yoon-jin’s sake, but Yoon-jin thinks it’s more about him getting in with the prosecutors. It’s not about her at all. She orders him to cancel the reservation and drags the team (minus Min-ho and Myung-joo) to the Fog.

At the Fog, Yoon-jin guzzles down beer and apologizes for her husband. The guys worry she shouldn’t drink given she’s coughing up a storm. Sick of being asked if she’s okay, she stipulates that anyone who asks takes a drink. Then, she dramatically passes out onto Jung-woo.

They take her to the hospital and leave when her husband and mother-in-law show up. Her mother-in-law does everyone’s favorite I-told-you-so routine. Then, she says to her son, “Sit here. You must be tired from working.” Yeah, he’s clearly the one in need of a rest here.

Yoon-jin can only talk back in her mind as she watches the ridiculous scene. Her mother-in-law tells her to take a six-month leave from work. Yoon-jin thinks to herself with tears in her eyes, “Your son isn’t the only prosecutor. I’m a prosecutor too.” Her parents are proud of her. She’s exhausted everyday from her job, only to come home to housework.

She finally starts to say what’s on her mind, but it comes out jumbled. Sighing she needs rest, she tells her husband to take his mom and go. The second they leave, she sobs under her covers. She discharges herself late that night, but she’s still not home by the next morning.

Seon-woong wakes to ambulance sirens and a phone call. Yoon-jin’s mother-in-law threw out her back, leaving Seon-woong and Myung-joo to watch the babies. (They’re all in the same building.) They worry Yoon-jin is passed out somewhere and decide to mount a search.

With no one else around, Seon-woong goes searching while Myung-joo hesitantly stays with the babies. Soon after, the babies wake up screaming, and Myung-joo panics as the Jaws theme plays. Ha.

On the hospital’s CCTV footage, Seon-woong spots Yoon-jin getting in a cab. Meanwhile, Jong-hak and his wife come to save Myung-joo, who looks a mess. She calls Seon-woong for an update. He’s headed to the police station—Yoon-jin caught at cab at 2:00 AM and got dropped off at her building but never made it inside.

Seon-woong goes straight to kidnapping and thinks they should contact her family first, but Myung-joo tells him to hold off. She asks him to meet her at the office. He’s confused but follows her in. And there sits Yoon-jin, fast asleep next to the copier. She’d spent all night working on the appeal for the hearing she lost.

After hearing about her mother-in-law, Yoon-jin rushes to the hospital. Frazzled, she apologizes and explains where she was. Her mother-in-law stops her. “How are you feeling?” She tells Yoon-jin she gets how important her work is, but she looks so tired. As a respected prosecutor, who wouldn’t understand if she needed a break?

Yoon-jin admits that female prosecutors get criticized so much, she’s afraid to take maternity leave. Her mother-in-law is surprised and sighs the country has a long way to go. Yoon-jin suggests making her husband take paternity leave instead; she already used hers after giving birth. Her mother-in-law scoffs. “What use would he be?”

After a long day, Yoon-jin walks in the door to screaming babies. Seon-woong walks in to chicken and beer with Jung-woo. Of course, Jung-woo runs off to his room the second he gets a call from a potential date, and Seon-woong tries to work out Jung-woo’s door passcode. At home, Jong-hak does the dishes and thinks back to the screaming babies he was handling earlier. Myung-joo kicks back alone with a beer.

Seon-woong and Man-ok interview Yeon-ah again. He informs her that colleagues have said she’s falsely accusing her boss, so it’ll be difficult. Yeon-ah opens up about her time at work. She learned to smoke so she could join the men’s smoke breaks where they would bond and share information. She advanced quicker than her fellow female colleagues.

Noticing that the pretty girls were treated better in the office, she started wearing makeup, working out, and dressing more stylishly. Then came the harassment. Assuming that was the price for a smoother work life, she put up with it. But she couldn’t ignore the kiss. “Do you know what I’ve regretted the most throughout my career? Being born as a woman.”

Myung-joo stops by Yoon-jin’s office to compliment the appeal letter. She awkwardly brings up how hard it is to be a working mom. “Stay strong.” Then, she pretends she forgot something and runs off, making Yoon-jin laugh.

Seon-woong narrates that there are soldiers and female soldiers, actors and actresses, as well as students and female students. The same is true for prosecutors, but it’s time to start calling everyone just a “prosecutor.” Like many mornings, they all meet at the elevator, and Yoon-jin slides in right as the doors close. They joke and laugh together.

We flash back to Seon-woong successfully entering Jung-woo’s room, and it looks like a teenage boy’s paradise. He’s got a nice computer setup, action figures and lots of pellet guns. Seon-woong gets overly excited handling one of the guns and ends up summarily executing some action figures, to his horror.

 
COMMENTS

This episode made me all kinds of ragey but in a good way. Everything from the casual sexism inherent in society’s expectations to instances of sexual harassment and assault was portrayed wonderfully. Most of the time, explorations of sexism focus on the more obvious issues like sexual assault or explicit misogyny, but the persistent, quieter sexism can also be devastating. I liked that othering terminology was even brought up. The default is always male, making people feel the need to specify when it’s a woman in the position. Being defined as a “female prosecutor” or “female soldier” qualifies your achievements and draws attention to your identity as opposed to your performance.

These “little things” can wear you down and make you feel trapped. Navigating male-dominant environments as a woman is exhausting, and that was evidenced fantastically by Yoon-jin. It’s crazy to me that people just outright said to her face that being a mom made her bad at her job. Is that normal in Korea? I knew it was tough being a working woman and especially a working mother in Korea (not that it isn’t elsewhere), but it was hard to watch all the blatant injustices. Poor Yoon-jin ran herself into the ground taking care of her babies, doing housework and having a full-time career only to face criticism on all sides. She looked so beaten down by her coworkers and her mother-in-law all making her feel inadequate as both a prosecutor and a mom, I just wanted someone to give her a hug. And it certainly didn’t seem like that was going to be her husband who never stood up for her at all.

I like that our characters have room for growth, but as in real life, it’s up to them whether or not they seize that opportunity. Last hour, Seon-woong learned the hard way that he needs to prioritize his family more and be a better father to his son—loving him isn’t enough; he needs to be there for him and set a good example. This time around, it was Myung-joo’s turn. I was so disappointed in Myung-joo’s response to Yoon-jin’s situation. Rather than standing up for her, she threw her under the bus. I understand why she reacted that way since she’s worked so hard to be respected in her field and doesn’t want to suffer by association. But that obviously doesn’t make it right. Ignoring injustices and forcing yourself to try to be one of the boys may benefit you in the moment, but it just continues the cycle. Nothing will change if we don’t stand up for ourselves and each other. Thankfully, Myung-joo seems to have learned from her mistake.

But not everyone is open-minded or willing to change. Jong-hak’s and Jung-woo’s misogynistic, gross response to the sexual assault case was unsettling. Jong-hak’s comments basically implying sexy women are asking for it and Jung-woo’s disgusting joke implying only attractive women get assaulted were infuriating. Although they shut up after Yoon-jin’s admonishments, they didn’t look like they took her comments seriously. As for Seon-woong and Min-ho, they didn’t say much, but they were complicit by laughing. Seon-woong looked affected by Yeon-ah’s story, though, so maybe he learned something. In general, I’m glad everyone was more respectful of Yoon-jin by the end, but that’s not enough. I hope they learned something about their role in the injustices women (not just Yoon-jin) face.

We finally got the ruler story, and it was funnier than I anticipated. Not only did Seon-woong just find it in a drawer, but he didn’t even know what it was! People are obsessing and ascribing all these motives to his actions when he really just needed a bottle opener. The emphasis placed on that thing has always seemed ridiculous to me, but this makes it even better.

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This was my absolute favorite episode. It highlighted everything that was necessary. Your comments are spot on @quirkycase.

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I think Myung-joo should have apologized to Yoon-jin, "cheer up" being not an apology. She can think everything she wants but she can't tell it to her colleague in a corridor in front of everyone. It was disrepectul at all levels.

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Agreed, but I think for her character that was one small step to being able to apologize to anyone. I'm interested to see if she will get to that point during the show.

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She should. It was rude and disrespectful, she didn't have the right to do so. And just one morning with the twins and she can empathize with YoonJin? She said she had been a private tutor, so she should know how to deal with children (sure, not toddlers, I give her that), but her lack of empathy is something real.
I mean, I'm not a mum, but I understand when my coworkers when they talk about their problems with kids.

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I think giving the climate for moms and working moms in south korea, as depicted in kdramas, there aren't many prosecutors who are also moms (Exceptions for those who either come from very rich families or marry into rich families). It looks like women who are planning to have children recognize that the system is messed up, so turn to other jobs. Some take a leave, and some leave their profession completely. But then, it makes the issue of working moms invisible and no one learns that conditions need to change on an institutional level.

Myung-joo's comments to Yoon-jin were a slap in the face and I was disappointed in her. I think part of what got Myung-joo to really look at Yoon-jin wasn't just having to take care of the kids for a few hours (I think Myung-joo knew kids would be hard because she was already horrified before physically having to interact with them), but also Yoon-jin's passion for her work. She was sick, but went into the office and worked all night to file a strongly-worded appeal for the case she lost. This isn't just a job for Yoon-jin, it's a career and a passion that is just as important to her and it is to Myung-joo. Yoon-jin puts her all into both aspects of her life. I'm sort of happy that Myung-joo was the one who figured out that Yoon-jin went into the office to work.

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Myung-joo's comments were there to make a sociological point. The writer wanted to avoid the cliche of 'its all the fault of the men' and the only way to do that was to have another women deliver the harshest criticism. Everyone in the show eventually had their own *tiny* epiphany. Even if it was as teensy as 'Don't make crude jokes in mixed company'. I'm reminded of 'Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food'. The harshest criticism I read of the series was over its bleak message that sexism is endemic and intractable and there's no winning against it.

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Totally agree! What Myung-joo said was not something Yoon-jin was unaware of.

Everyone keeps mentioning taking a leave. If she doesn't take the leave and had a bad day, then she is considered neglectful of her duties. But if she takes that leave (and she is fortunate that leave is even an option), then she would also be seen as being neglectful of her duties - which Yoon-jin explained to her mother-in-law. There is no winning.

I thought it was interesting that her husband is also a prosecutor -with the same job security and leave benefits, but he didn't take it. And when paternity leave was brought up, it was done in a lighthearted, joke-y manner since society has already instilled in him learned helplessness in the matters of housework and childrearing.

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Paternity leave is just starting to be something real in not so many countries. I also was a bit annoyed when it was brought in the conversation by Yonn-ji and her mother in law, and then discarded as useless. Hey, he is the father and the kids need his as much as their mum, and it will always be better for them to be with him rather than other person (even if that person is their grandma). Still a long way to go.

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I didn't interpet the suggestion as being discarded. I saw the husband and motherin-law surprised (and a bit annoyed) that she'd suggest it, but I read it as he's actually gonna do it... eventually... after arguing about it for awhile. Because she's not leaving work.

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I thought that entire scene was supposed to show us that Yoon-jin's mother-in-law actually respected Yoon-jin more than she thought. She felt her mother-in-law was biased against her, but, ironically, the sexism was in her attitude toward her son's domestic abilities. Although her flippant remark was intended to lighten the mood more than anything, I don't think the show was trying to trivialize Yoon-jin's proposal regarding shared parental leave. If anything, Yoon-jin's proposal seemed like a viable solution and made it easier to understand her frustration.

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This was such an incredible episode. I loved at lunch when the men were all laughing about a comment on women, one of the women called them on it, and then there was a strained silence. Absolutely been in that moment, and they pulled it off so well.

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You and so many of us, sister.

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Me too! Yoon-jin is a badass.

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Thanks for the great recap and the comments.

I loved the way this drama approaches every subject, not only one side, not trying to establish the "right point of view" but rather showing us different sides so we all realize it's never a simple issue, it's always about specific cases, it's never a"right point of view". After all, that's exactly what happens in real life.

As you said, being a working woman is hard, and it's harder being a mum. And it's even more complicated if you work in a traditional men environment. I'm not a mother but when I began working in my job it was almost all men and it was not always easy, being patronized was the normal thing. So that's why I understand a little MyungJoo's reaction, although I thought it was out of place. I mean, she's equal to YoonJin, not her superior, so she could have approached her as colleagues, never the way she did, in the middle of the office, while everybody was watching. I know of course, it's all for the drama, but it said very little about her.

I love the growth we see in all characters, I love this show. The only thing I don't love is MinHo. He's mean and weak, he bullies his staff. I hope we have an episode were we can see how he realizes he's not good. Because he's not at all.

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I don't hate him, and it does seem like everyone on his staff gets along with him even though he bullies them. But what does Min Ho even do? Is it supposed to be like Michael Scott from the Office? He gets almost as much screentime as the other characters, but he never does anything.

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The depiction of marriage in this series is very original. Not to say its inaccurate, its just unusual for it to be depicted on-screen in this way. I don't really know how to describe it, perhaps as a flawed institution that the individuals involved continue to stumble their way through, even after years of marriage. It was a bit of a shock to find Seon-woong to be in an absentee relation with his family. It was doubly-shocking to find Yoon-jin is in the same boat with her own prosecutor husband assigned elsewhere and she's left with two small children at home.

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Bob

SK Drama is chock full of dysfunctional relationships and marriage - yes and even ones that describe it as a flawed institution.

Everything from "Marriage Not Dating" where both families were deep into disfunction to "A Moment at Eighteen". "Everything and Nothing" was one of the best at pulling at the loose threads of the SK social structure - it was brutal in the way it looked at how once you enforce strict stereotypes, everyone just has something to hide.

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Remind self to be born as a man with a stay-at-home wife in a childless relationship. Seems like that is the most relaxing life.

Also, I had suspected Seon-woong had only picked up the carpenter's ruler, and I was right!

This was a brilliant episode. I thought it was great that the episode covered two different kinds of misogyny. There is the one we usually see in kdramas - the boss who sexually assaults his employee and no one believes her. And then there is the casual sexism that doesn't seem outwardly harmful - like you said, it's these "little things".

But with Yeon-ah's backstory, it really started off with these little things - the male-dominated smoke breaks that men use to network and give themselves a leg up. She tried her best to adjust to the sexist workplace culture and carve out some success for herself, and in return, she was branded as someone you could sexually assault.

I thought the drama tackled the emotional and physical wear and tear of being a full-time mom very well. I really liked how the pediatrician, knowing that she is a working mom, handed her a drink with a note that said "have a nice day. We root for you." Yoon-jin wasn't always tired with the twins. In previous episodes, she seemed relaxed. As a mom, there were some tough days and she just needed a moment to breathe. But because she was a mom, everyone thought she needed to take a 6-month leave or have someone smooth the way for her (i.e. her husband inviting her colleagues to BBQ).

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I remember being so angry at Myung Joo for calling out Yoon Jin like that!! Every prosecutor has cases they mess up. Everyone has bad days. YJ seemed to be having just that. Didn't MJ mess up her domestic abuse case bad!? But none of her colleagues called her out or anything! They smartly steered clear of mentioning it infronte of her. They understood that she's a human too and that case just hit too close to home. However when it came time for MJ to show the same kindness to her colleague, she disappointed all of us! I was especially mad at her for this reason but she eventually recognizes her mistake and I'm happy her kinda sorta apology illustrates she's ashamed of her actions! No bad blood remains between the two!

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Perhaps I am too sympathetic towards Myung-joo, but Yoon-jin's job is not just about her. Myung-joo was too quick to judge despite her limited perspective, but she was also outraged by the outcome of a case even Yoon-jin thought she should have won. Myung-joo cynically believes she is the only competent employee who cares, but both the manager and her colleagues tend to reinforce her worst impressions. It doesn't help that her supervisor allows her to do whatever she wants, while leaving it to others to deal with the aftermath. The episode shows us Yoon-jin is overwhelmed, and she makes some bad choices (e.g., stubbornly drinking with her colleagues when she is ill). She also responds defensively to any criticism. We come to understand and sympathize with her, but I think it's easy to understand where everyone else is coming from, too.

I guess I'm not as inclined to label everyone sexist. I think it's more complicated than that. Maternity leave can cause friction and hostility from both men and women within the workplace when it is handled poorly by management. Similarly, if a colleague's personal life and responsibilities start to become an obvious burden, co-workers may lose sympathy if they feel work they care about is compromised or they are forced to work overtime instead without adequate compensation or recognition. How an employer or supervisor responds to such situations and the nature of the work itself can have a huge impact on other employees' attitudes towards their colleague. Personally, I think the best solution is to grant every worker (male and female) a certain number of mandatory leaves, which they can use however they choose. If workers require additional time off, they may need to consider altering their professional goals, but I think that's fair. Some jobs and careers may be too dangerous, time-consuming, or inflexible for working parents, but most should offer greater flexibility. As technology alters the working environment and working from home becomes more common, I think both women and men will find it easier to juggle personal and professional responsibilities.

Finally, I really like the way this show leads us to react to each character twice: first superficially as an uninformed outsider with a bystander's limited perspective and then as an insider with a greater understanding of that character's experiences and thoughts.

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I have so much feels for this episode. I wrote my thesis surrounding how misogyny and sexism in S.Korea are represented in dramas. I am so triggered by this episode that I watched it twice and am tempted to write another thesis all over again lol.

Although sexism and misogyny are touched by other dramas, this episode was special with how Myung Joo reacted to Yoon Jin's predicament. We often get female characters backing up each other when sexism/misogyny are in question, so it is interesting how same-sex sexism can be more frustrating and disappointing.

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This week's episode thread lightly on working mother plight to balance work and family life. I have not sunk into that boat yet and frankly scared off by the type of commitment required to raise a child. In such patriachal society like Korea/Japan even more pronounced when mothers want to continue achieve this delicate balance and only now governments getting the private and public employers to work together when the fertility rates fall below the replacement level of its citizens.

Tough being a family oriented prosecutor in a male dominated profession. One that bias is so ingrained and I cannot agree with the older men prosecutor actions today. Even Myung joo should earn a slap. Being woman who is only caring for ownself you should never judge another woman to your standard.
But being a working person myself I myself grunt slightly when my colleagues are away from work due to commitments bcos of their family. I should not feel that though as I have older parents to support and care so am in the same boat.

It takes both parents to raise a child and never blame only the mother when there is a father in their lives.

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Oh, the mighty ruler...

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wow this one hit so close to home that I felt like I was re-living this part of life. really true to life depiction of the work-mom juggle. i find most kdrama over the top to pluck at heartstrings or induce outrage, but this was not that. the snowballing of YJ's day was not overplayed and so real. this is what many working moms live, maybe sans the co-workers pitching in and realizing that YJ has a whole other job that is just as demanding. it's really heartening that kdrama are addressing these kinds of social issues that have such an impact on quality of life. i just jumped in for ep. 8 but will watch more based on the strength of this one.

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This episode was so good, but also hard to watch because it hit close to home. I think it really is harder for working women in Korea, partly because of the fraught in-law relationships. Of course all in-law relationships are difficult, but it's at a whole other level in Korean families.

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