Gi Won Post wouldn't settle for a life overshadowed by men. After arriving in the United States, she found her footing.
By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published November 7, 2003
TAMPA PALMS - South Korea in the 1960s was no place for a woman like Gi Won Post.
Corporate promotions were reserved for men. A woman's place was behind the scenes. In her own family, Post felt insignificant because she was not born a boy.
"In Korea, I could never be my own person because I'm a woman," said Post, the third of seven daughters in an upper middle class family. "I felt like I was a bird in a cage."
She landed in California in 1968 and never looked back.
She has gone from audit clerk at the World Bank to chief of information management at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and then to network analyst at the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was charged with monitoring weapons of mass destruction in Iraq during the 1990s.
It has been a busy life for the 63-year-old, who in 1992 moved to the Sanctuary in Tampa Palms. She lives there part time with her husband, Ron Post, the counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines.
The couple married 30 years ago, but their anniversary celebration has been delayed until events slow down in the Philippines, where Ron Post oversaw President Bush's recent visit.
"He's so relieved it's over," Gi Won Post said. "He was on call all the time."
Gi Won Post was born in 1939 in Taegu, the third largest city in South Korea. Her father worked in the ministry of finance, in charge of salt, tobacco and ginseng production. Her mother was a 19th-generation descendant of a crown prince of the Yi Dynasty, which ruled the Korean peninsula from 1392 to 1910.
Although she had a comfortable childhood, it wasn't always pleasant. Her parents had wanted a son, but their first seven children, including Gi Won, were daughters. Finally, a son was born on the eighth try.
"They didn't stop trying until he was born," Post said. "But when I was born, my mother pushed me away. She was very disappointed."
Post was raised by a grandmother who felt sorry for her. They had much in common.
"I'm more and more like my grandmother," Post said. "Rebellious. Feisty."
By the time she was 27, Gi Won was unhappy with her career. She said men who were less qualified were getting the promotions she wanted. A boss finally told her the reason: She was a woman.
So Post left for the United States, where she found a nation willing to give her a chance.
After her visa ran out, a deportation officer told her that she had good English, and allowed her to stay. After attending George Washington University, Post got a job as an audit clerk at the World Bank. Shortly afterward, she met her future husband, Ron, a Michigan native who was an Army information officer in Seoul.
After he passed his foreign service exam, they married in 1973.
One of his first assignments after the wedding was in Laos, which at the time was at war. Post was the last wife of a U.S. official to evacuate in 1975.
"It was hair-raising," Post said. "It was pouring rain. Communist soldiers pointed guns at us until we got on an eight-seater. I thought they were going to shoot me."
Post returned to her birthplace in 1976 when her husband was assigned to Korea.
"I went back kicking and screaming," Post said, laughing.
The University of Maryland, which has a campus in Taegu, gave Post a job teaching Korean history.
Post said she enjoyed this period, but many people treated her differently. She said it was assumed she was just another woman to marry an American G.I.
"That's so stereotypical," Post said. "I really don't like that. People assume that."
And many in her family didn't like it that she married a white man.
"I was given so much grief for supposedly ruining the bloodline," Post said.
In 1980, the couple returned to Washington, where Post beat out 200 other applicants and won an internship to study computers - a good move for the period.
But she still faced resentment, this time from white co-workers who accused her of being a token hire.
"I walked up to one of these guys after he said that, and I said: "Your neck doesn't look red, but you're a redneck.' "
In 1988, Post was hired to oversee 27 employees as the chief of information management for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Seoul.
When her husband was assigned to Vienna, Austria, in 1991, Post applied to the United Nations. She was hired as an analyst at the International Atomic Energy Agency, where she worked between 1992 and 1996.
Her boss was Hans Blix.
"Like every big boss, he was very ambitious," Post said. "But I felt he was quite honest."
Her department operated and maintained the computer system that tracked all nuclear information from countries.
Post said she enjoyed the time they spent in Vienna. They had a beautiful flat outside city hall where they lived for five years - the same building where Sigmund Freud first practiced in 1884.
They would have parties with famous people, like architect I.M. Pei and artist Roy Lichtenstein. During one party, beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg recited some of his work in their living room.
Since her U.N. job, Post has been a freelance consultant on cross-cultural perspectives and management training. She speaks to business groups in Thailand, Burma, the Philippines and Austria, as well as Tampa.
Post stays healthy and fit through meditation and tai chi.
"I can't believe I've been so blessed," Post said. "But once I was on American soil, I felt like the bird was let out of the cage."
