The ground for the wave of #MeToo accusations sweeping socially conservative South Korea was laid by a defiant saleswoman who took on the corporate might of Samsung, won a harassment case against her boss and changed career to become a lawyer. Lee Eun-eui now focuses on helping victims of sex abuse herself. The #MeToo movement against the abuse of women at first met a muted response in the country, where victims fear losing their jobs and public humiliation if they complain. But a growing number of South Korean women have come forward to accuse powerful figures in fields from politics and the arts to education and religion. Lee was a pioneer. An elite salesperson at Samsung Electro-Mechanics, a components unit of the giant conglomerate, she complained to management in 2005 about a boss who had repeatedly touched and verbally harassed her for years. The supervisor was quietly moved to another firm with no formal investigation, but Lee was labelled an agitator who “backstabbed” her superior. “I was given no work for more than a year… my employee evaluation scores dived,” she said. She was transferred to another department where the manager told her he did not like her or want to work with her, “so other colleagues also refused to talk to me” — plunging her into depression. Lee’s options, it seemed, were to resign, or “just stay and quietly suffer the career setbacks”, she said. But the 44-year-old’s soft-spoken manner belies her determination. “I did nothing wrong,” she said. “So I decided to fight.”