Since the establishment of the South Korean government in August 1948, the Ministry of Social Issues (사회부; 社會部) handled discrimination against women until the department's merger in 1955.

On July 23, 1999, the law forbidding and regulating sexual discrimination (남녀차별 금지 및 구제에 관한 법률) was created.

[5] However, the criticism concerning the lack of advancements for women in societies continued, and the Ministry of Gender Equality (여성부) was formed as a response[4] on January 29, 2001.

[7] There has been a criticism of the involvement of the word Women (여성) in the name of MOGEF, bringing charges of taking a side in the issue of gender inequality and reverse discrimination.

[9] In November 2011, the ministry enforced a System of forced shutdown of teenage gaming (청소년 게임 강제 셧다운제도).

[11] The law has been criticized as being ineffective,[11][12] encouraging teenagers to commit the crime of using their parents' resident registration number,[11][13] and restricting the production of domestic games.