Helen Kim Helen Kim, the seventh principal and first Korean principal of Ewha, is considered to be pro-Japanese. She is known to have encouraged young men to enlist in the Japanese army. The statue of Helen Kim and the building named after her on campus have both been criticized. Many protests were organized to take down the statue.
Women's rights movements While Ewha Womans University has been the center of women's rights movements, this
feminist feature created controversies in Korea. One example was
men's benefit from military service. Originally, getting extra points on employment and being paid for higher step in the salary class were available to males who had done their mandatory military service. In 1999, a couple of Ewha Womans University students and one male student, who was a disabled student at
Yonsei University, claimed that this law was both sexist and discriminatory toward disabled people. This case eventually went to court, and the court ruled in the students' favor.
2016 South Korean political scandal Ewha Womans University became embroiled in the
2016 South Korean political scandal, because a former student,
Chung Yoo-ra, had been admitted under a special rule change by virtue of her mother's close connections to South Korean President
Park Geun-hye despite not meeting requirements. Students had already been protesting against some of the university's unilateral changes to the degree system and departments before the political scandal blew up. As a result, the university's president, Choi Kyunghee, was ousted and convicted and Chung Yoo-Ra's degree was rescinded. ==Awards==