The Awake of South Korean Women - Essay Example

The awake of South Korean women Siqi Zhou, Rui Zhu and Yanzi Wu South Korea AMID-R404 4/22 As one of the “Four Tigers” back to 1970s, South Korea showed the rest of the world its potential to become a developed country in Asian. Indeed, with its increasing number of GDP after 1960s, South Korea reached a peak in its history that other Asian countries wished to achieve. During its development, South Koreas industry made a significant contribution to economic development. Back to where South Korea began to develop, labor intensive industry is the primary force that South Korea to be one of the "four tigers" and later created "economic miracle". The development of that labor intensive industry could not succeed without the work of South Korean women, who are the vital part in the form of that labor intensive industry. The lives of those women were also changing with the development. Today, after being influenced by varies of aspects, like tradition values, the democratic movement and Asian financial crisis, South Korean womens social status has changed dramatically. Although their status in the family did not change too much, their live quality, status in the workplace as well as education background has changed a lot compare to their lives before 1960s. In this paper, we are going discuss what we discovered through the investigation: how the increased development of apparel industry drives economic growth in South Korea, the process reveals one significant phenomenon facing female status: there is a strong association with change in female status with the growing economic scale nowadays. Introduction The South Korean economy was highly boosted by the establishment of the apparel and textile industry, which exported its products and gained many revenues. South Korean men offered most of the skilled labor while women provided the cheap unskilled workforce. At the time when S. Korea was ruled by Japan, many industries were established which included textiles, agriculture, and engineering. Sometime after the Korean War, South Korea was ranked among the poorest nations. South Korea embarked on development strategies, achieved enormous economic growth and became industrialized (Shin, 1980). The government played a key role in the development of the industrial sector. The apparel and textile industry has grown to become the leading industry in South Korea and has been offering the greatest percentage of industrial employment. The traditional face of Korean women saw drastic changes with the advent of industrial development. While seeking their ways of independence and respects from society, the apparel industry not only empowered them financially, but also made them an icon of beauty and aspiration. The Korean apparel industry is a relatively new initiative that is inviting more and more women into the workforce. Interestingly, the industry is not limited to Korea; rather spreads its wings to the entire world, which requires these women to be well introduced to the different lifestyles. The women are no more restricted to their traditional clothing; rather, can set a standard of beauty and grace (Shin, 1980). This liberation has also marked changed locally where more and more women are choosing to wear apparels different from their native ones. It has also altered their social and economic position in the society. The profit earned by the Korean apparel industry is about 10% of the total profit made by various businesses (Kong, 1996). The steady growth of the apparel industry increased womens profit and made women financially strong and socially respected. In other words, the apparel industry has empowered women while retaining the beliefs of the culture. It has also managed to maintain a social balance that neither leaves the women helpless; women gained their social status and retained their role as women in family and society. The Korean apparel industry is not only an economic enterprise, but also a social change, which counter the fields of women’s independence and choice (Palley 2008). The industry has not only granted financial security leading to a higher stature in the family and society, but has also allowed them a chance to value their distinct features of beauty. While Koreans were largely subjected to discrimination based on their physical features, the apparel industry has turned the tables and used those distinct features to set a new standard of beauty. Perhaps, the women, which were once the face of the family have now, come to be the face of the entire nation and culture. Feminist philosophy was little mentioned in South Korea up to late 1993. It happened after some women philosophers who congregated to focus on feminist issues in the philosophical field. They constituted a reading group, which developed into a Korean Association for Feminist Philosophy (Gelb & Palley, 2008). The concerns of feminist among the women originated from the male-oriented perspective in academia and partly from the Korean society’s patriarchal culture. South Korea has been for many years adversely segregated society in aspects of sex due to the influence of the tradition of Confucian. Confucianism was an accepted philosophy in the five hundred years of the last dynasty. It offered governing principles for education and administration, even during the time of the Buddhist culture, which existed in the initial stages of the history of Korea. The segregation of sex in Korea has led to the emergence of solidarity and unique culture among the Korean women. Korea is located between Japan and China in the Far Eastern region. Korea has numerous geographical peculiarities, has had to face many challenges in numerous wars with her neighbors in sustaining its cultural and linguistic identity. Korean women suffered dramatic variations in terms shift and knowing that they were the colony women (Gill & Stewart, 2011). These incidences were happening during the time of Japanese occupation of South Korea. At the time of colonial period, there were movements and organizations, which were comprised of women alone. Many women had a thought and feeling that if they participate in the struggle for independence that they were to be treated as equal to their male counterparts will. Nationalism and feminism were not conflicting as women could escape via nationalistic movements with no scruples concerning events and activities away from their home. Women were awakened by nationalism to logic, and they knew they could do something meaningful to help themselves and their family. It gave them awareness about live and their relevance of being part of society and essence of being responsible for their future. All that formed the history of feminism in South Korea. Feminism brought some consciousness to women through nationalism activities (Heo, 2010). Feminism in South Korea has been hugely supported via sex slavery opposition of Korean women by an army of Japan. Womens role was initially to be the homemaker who was responsible for perpetuating the traditional family by bearing sons according to the Confucian values. Women had to understand the modernization through participating in it. Most men of then thought that feminism was just propaganda, but it turned out to be the opposite (Heo & Roehrig, 2010). Men thought that feminist culture was a western propaganda that was supposed to be blamed for neglect of the family values by women. Again, the time the South Korean men wanted to epitomize the modernization, they just wanted to their female counterparts to remain, submissive daughters, old mothers, and obedient daughter-in-laws. The South Korean women have experienced a lot that is closely related thought of religion of Buddhism, Christianity and Confucianism in the modern times. Thus feminist ideology in South Korean tussles with ideas raised from each religious setting. Life before awake The South Korean government enforced some laws, which were suppressing women workers by strict laws. In late 1970s, the legislature changed and revised labor rules, which restricted the collective bargaining rights. The political and economic functions of unions of labor were considerably weakened. The labor suppression was specifically huge to the foreign firms and export-oriented firms (Moon, 2008). Later in 1970s, the legislature passed another law, which prohibited disputes in labor and establishment unions of labor. The legal sanctions brought by the S. Korea nation were detrimental the female workers for two major reasons. These reasons include many women were working in the export and foreign-based firms. Women accounted for the greater proportion of the workers in those firms. Again, the women category was the majority of the unskilled workforce who were paid poorly. The labor enforcement it not only limited rights of women workers but also it prohibited the unions of labor (Rosin, 2013). When there were labor struggles police used to use sexual and physical violence to quell demonstrations, which significantly affected the women workers. Feminist philosophy was little mentioned in South Korea up to late 1993. It happened after some women philosophers who congregated to focus on feminist issues in the philosophical field. (Gelb & Palley, 2008). Indeed, After South Korea separate with North Korea, women were the lower social group in South Korea’s society. South Korea has been for many years adversely segregated society in aspects of sex due to the influence of the tradition of Confucian. Confucianism was an accepted philosophy in the five hundred years of the last dynasty. It offered governing principles for education and administration, even during the time of the Buddhist culture, which existed in the initial stages of the history of Korea. Confucianism advocates that women are born to serve men and their families. Giving birth to offspring is considered to be a primary responsibility of South Korean women. Confucianism has governed South Koreans society for many years; the segregation of sex in Korea has led to the emergence of solidarity and unique culture among the Korean women. Even today, this kind of traditional value still exists in many South Korean families. Korea is located between Japan and China in the Far Eastern region. Korea has numerous geographical peculiarities, has had to face many challenges in various wars with her neighbors in sustaining its cultural and linguistic identity. The situation of women serving family did not change until the cold war started. Under the tension between South Korea and North Korea, the whole society is militarized. Citizenship in this kind of militarized society is highly gendered (Hermanns, 2014). Women were supposed to fulfill their traditional roles as mothers and wives while men served their nation both in the military and at work. The violent relationship between civil society and the state under the political conditions of military authoritarian rule and national division further accentuated the masculinization of the public sphere and thereby further discouraged women’s access to it during the pre-1988 period. The influence the intense relationship brought changed South Korean women’s responsibility toward the family. Women began to work to support families. Education background；South Korean women did not receive much education back then. The very first program of women studies in South Korea was inaugurated in the 1980s at the Woman is the University of Ewha, which is the biggest University of women in the world. Many of the feminist scholars in the programs collaborated with the non-governmental activists to protest different cases of sexual discrimination (Hermanns, 2014). Few women philosophers have participated in the establishment of the programs of women studies. In South Korea, there are very few women philosophers and fewer of them have the feminist orientation. Many of those who came up with the idea of the feminist movement are social scientists. Feminist philosophers influenced the activists and the feminists in the society. Feminists have exhaustively tried to excavate questions of women, which are deeply rooted in the Korean traditional culture. In recent past feminist on the issues of the women, heading families and ubiquitous sex and pervasive won the battle. They struggle until the time institute a sex law. Feminist allied NGOs were hugely responsible for the unforeseeable victory while the feminist philosophers aided the movement by restructuring the concept of the family and tabulating culture and values about the sex trade in the South Korea. Currently feminists in South Korea majors on the question of the position of the women in the S. Korea and tradition in the society (Hermanns, 2014). Nowadays women of South Korea have divided ideologies, which are because of different values and religious traditions. There are some key areas where the South Korean women have tried their best to get freedom. These areas of focus include family, education, jobs or employment and politics. The changing status of South Korean women is not affected by singular culture. One cannot locate womens reality in South Korea without expanding the site to the underlying ideology and attitude of the civilization. The status of women has been a dynamic one in which the changes in their stature are closely related to the economic and political changes (Kong, 1996). It is as if the idea of a ‘women does denote not only a living species, but also a political stance that determines the structure of society. In other words, it is essential for women to be at a particular position in the society for it to function smoothly (Shin, 1980). The changes in womens status in South Korea carries a background of forceful economic, political and traditional cultural changes that not only changed their status in the society but also questioned Koreas social structure that has been alive in Koreas society for hundred years. The changing face of South Korean women is tightly bounded with society and refreshed societys knowledge of ideology and feminism. South Korea has been a traditionally known culture where the role of women was primarily of being a support to the men. They were expected to be submissive and gentle, serving the men in the best of their abilities (Hoffman, 1995). When trace back to 1950s, the tense situation in South Korea and North Korea, exacerbated by cold war, forced the whole country entered a militarized century. The wild conscription of male citizen forced female citizens to "fulfill their traditional roles as wives and mothers while men served their nation both in the work and military" (Shin, 2008). Although the tension between South Korea and North Korea was a reason, women were thought to serve their family; tradition values like Confucianism still play a vital role in forming womens social status. Confucianism, which spread to Korea since Yi dynasty, positioned women as the person who needs to serve her father, husband and son unconditionally. The "authorized" ideology of women governed South Korean society for hundreds of years. Even now, these values still exist in most South Koreas family. However, it would be worth to say that the hierarchal structure of Korean culture assumed womens status to be on the lower grounds where they were expected to have sacrificial duties. The highly patriarchal culture is domesticated women to be of a certain kind in order to serve well to others (Hermanns, 2014). They were financially and socially dependent on men since they were not provided with good jobs to sustain an individualistic lifestyle. Changes occurred in 1980s when the social movement took place in South Koreas history. Before that, South Korea is a country with labor-intensive industries like agriculture. Women work as cheap labor to earn money for their family. Some analysts have observed that South Koreas "economic miracle" was achieved in large measure because of female labor since women have been very heavily involved in some of the labor-intensive industries, such as the garment trades (Palley, 1990). However, when heavy machinery took place in workplaces, women began to worry about their works. In addition, among all those women, working-class women, who have received higher education than other women still insist on working out of the home and began to concern womens working conditions. As the concern became noticeable, a varieties social movement of women began to rise. In addition, caused the attention of society. Unlike other social movements that are also related to womens social status, South Korean women positioned themselves without traditional labels. Unlike other countries women, for example, Latino and Japan, who protested as mothers in order to be accepted by societies, South Koreas protests are only focused on the working condition of women. The traditional face of Korean women saw drastic changes with the advent of industrial development. While seeking their ways of independence and respects from society, the apparel industry not only empowered them financially, but also made them an icon of beauty and aspiration. A lot has changed over the years about the family matters. During the olden days, women were not allowed to lead an individualized life but this has changed over the time and has become the order of the day. Women of the some years back were viewed as just homemakers who had no say in terms of the family matter, but currently they have freed themselves and are independent to constitute their families and lead an individual life (Kim & Kim, 2011). Again, there are demographic changes, in individual’s life courses, family forms, fertility-mortality trends. Much of the individualization had come over the period when the modernization had taken over; this has led to leaving behind the cultural and moral modification. Nowadays the family institution is changing to an elective relationship and an association of individuals who bring with them their experiences, interests and plans and are subjected to various risks, controls, and constraints. In the traditional family setting, women were subjected to the cultural and traditional norms but currently the family is based on the modernity of the society. South Korean families are based on the affectionate, instrumental, individualistic and Confucian with a common attribute of putting more emphases on womens functionality and socially subordinate in matters of family issues. Politics in South Korea have been for years dominated by male (Hermanns, 2014). When women joined, politics was viewed as deviance against gender-role expectations. Since the independence of the South Korean republic, only seven women had been elected to the national assembly. The wake of South Korean women The South Korean women formed groups that participated in democratization movement in 1980s; they defined an identity as kichung. The movement strived to liberate the women from the oppression. Three different groups of feminist women formed activism of women rights movement in colleges, churches and labor association. With the rapid development of South Korea, the nations economy reached a peak during its development. In 1980s, South Koreas economy is so successful that it exceeds other Asian countries that also develop rapidly like Malaysia and Philippine. The opening investments and changing the global economy, shift South Koreas labor intensive industry development to industry-centered development (Shin.K). The sudden change cause a high rate of unemployment, women are the vital part of labor, faced the obstacles that they might not able to support their family. Confucian families are formed from high, rigid labor division where women are allocated duties to care for elders and husband together with caring for the children. Individualistic families have bolstered the premarital status of women through it when they get married a burden befalls to them with contradictory demands and expectations from spouse and children. Defamiliation typically occurs, as a result, a womens decision (Koch, Konigorski & Sieverding, 2014). There lots of disturbances the South Korean women since they to confront family hazards together with the existing burdens to them. There have been also many divorce cases in young families, which have resulted in too many difficulties in; bring up the children by single mothers. Divorce cases were rare in 1980s, but today many have resulted in it. However, women have attained some freedom; they have not fully liberalized themselves since even their premarital life is not entirely characterized by freedom from a family of personal independence. In patriarchal marriage, the South Korean women are not fully independent since, as they require parental influence in adapting to the new way of life. There are two big holidays which people turn to their homes to visit their relatives. When married are spending their fun they usually decide to stay indoors or go for movies. At that time, there are three major movements happening in South Koreas society: xxx, xxx and democratic movement. Women started to realize they are the oppressed class, and they choose to join the democratic movement. Many of the women who have had been to the national assembly were appointed (Palley, 2009). This trend shows that the society had not built the confidence in trusting women with leadership mantle. Women faced tremendous challenges in being elected to the national assembly. There are some settings in South Korea where women are barred from actively participating in politics like the case of patriarchal society. Currently, there are some glimpses of change where some few women are engaging themselves in active politics as compared to the past. Women have not sufficiently been liberated in terms of politics participation. Since S. Korea is democratic country, it some kind been similar to most of western countries. S. Korean women have liberated themselves, currently they are working in better jobs, running their businesses and some have endulged themselves to politics. After 1960s, the rapid development of South Koreas economy, the government put investment into education, which allowed women to have higher opportunities to receive an education. Asian financial crisis The turning point of the changing of women’s social status. During 1997-1998, a financial crisis attached Asian countries; South Korea is one of them. Many families have experienced the small ties in that time. The unemployment increased rapidly. (Source: Ma.L, Economic Crisis and womens labor force return after childbirth: evidence from South Korea) Many women have to sell their gold jewelry to support their families. Source: International Monetary Fund, world Economic Outlook Database, April 2011 The pressure forced women return to work after they give birth to children. Women who have higher education return to work quicker. The government published laws equal work rights, which allows South Korean women to have equal rights even today. Conclusion Many South Korea women are family-centered due to their experience of individualization. The S. Korean women are optimistically family-centered, but it is difficult to generalize or predict their general nature to their familial devotion. The individualization of the South Korean women has developed gradually with time before women were just treated as homemakers. It has taken much effort and devotion for the same to happen. Again the South Korean women were not allowed to get educated but with that have come to pass after a series of feminist and nationalistic movements who have sensitized the public to the need to get educated. It a lot a lot of struggle for women to liberate themselves and get equal treatment in education wise as their male counterparts. In terms of employment, South Korean women have also made a stern step in fighting for their rights in the labor unions. They faced strong repression in activities of labor. However, they continued to challenge the West stereotype that they were submissive and docile. Finally, in politics, women have not actively come out in numbers to actively contest for the electoral posts in the government. 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