Women and gender in the Republic of Korea

Hartford Web Publishing is not the author of the documents in World History Archives and does not presume to validate their accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright.

Women Taking The Initiative: The Women's Movement In South Korea
From Arm The Spirit, 9 March 1995. A brief overview since WWII.
Women in Korea
By Thomas C. Ellis, 10 December 1995. Contradicts above article by suggesting that, while the Confucian ethos might limit Korean women, they support it because it is the source of their personal identity, family stability and it supports the capitalist economy.
Women charge sexual harassment
From Workers World, 12 December 1996. Women activists arrested with other student protesters were subjected to sexual harassement by the state police.
Female Employees Hit Hardest by Company Restructuring
By Moon Chan-joo, Korea Herald, 1 July 1998. Rising female unemployment in Korea is bringing to surface the limited professional success that women have had and casting a spotlight on the nation’s strong patriarchal tradition.
Women First Out, Last Back into Jobs
By Ahn Mi-Young, IPS, 29 May 2000. Women workers who had husbands working as colleagues in the same company were the first to go during the massive lay-offs in 1997 and 1998. Women laid off to be rehired as perma-temps. The 1997 economic crisis turned the workplace into a cool and cruel place for woman workers having a hard time going back.
Solidarity for Whom, by Whom? The marginalization of women inside the progressive sector
PICIS Newsletter, 26 January 2001. The gender issue or the problem of women in progressive movements has always been a hot potato. In the Korean progressive movement, the problem of gender inequality has only recently come out into the open. Hyundai Motors example illustrates the deep and widespread discrimination against women in major unions.