ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ АВТОНОМНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ

ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

«ВЫСШАЯ ШКОЛА ЭКОНОМИКИ»

Факультет мировой экономики и мировой политики

Школа Востоковедения

МАГИСТЕРСКАЯ ДИССЕРТАЦИЯ

по направлению «Востоковедение и африканистика»

студента образовательной программы

«Социально-политическое развитие и вызовы современной Восточной Азии»

Феминистский дискурс и современное положение женщин в южнокорейском обществе

	Студент(ка) группы М МЭ МСЭПР151
	Анна Рубеновна Галустьян
Рецензент	Руководитель
Погадаева А.В., старший преподаватель РГГУ	К.и.н Ким Н.Н.

Москва 2017

Government of the Russian Federation

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

School of Asian Studies

Educational programme

“Socio-political Development and Challenges of Modern East Asia"

MASTER’S THESIS

Feminist Discourse and Women’s Social Position in the Modern South Korean Society

	Student Galustyan Anna Group М МЭ МСЭПР151
Reviewer	Scientific Advisor
Pogadaeva A. V., senior lecturer at Russian State University of Humanities	Associate Professor, PhD Kim N.N.

Moscow, 2017

Contents

Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs 5

Introduction 7

Chapter 1 14

Feminist movement in South Korea: western influence and development 14

1.1 Western feminism development 14

1.2 Feminist branches 19

1.3 Creating a new image of Korean woman 26

1.4 Feminist Movement in South Korea 31

1.6 Conclusion 36

Chapter 2 38

Feminist Organizations in South Korea and main issues 38

1.1 Separation of the Feminist movement and the Gender Policy of South Korea 38

1.2 Major Women`s organizations in South Korea 42

1.3 Main problems on the agenda of the South Korean feminist organization 50

1.4 Conclusion 55

Chapter 3 56

Reflection of the feminist agenda in South Korean media 56

1.1 Reflection of the main feminist agenda in the South Korean media (with the usage of MAXQDA) 56

1.2 Reflection of the South Korean feminist groups activity in media 60

1.3 The journal Dong-a Ilbo Women 69

1.4 Conclusion 73

Conclusion 74

Bibliography 78

Primary sources 78

Internet sources 82

Secondary sources 83

Introduction

The title of this work is “Feminist discourse and social position of women in South Korea”. Feminist discourse is a vast set of ideas, ideals, conceptions about women reflected in the text (privately, in South Korean mass media). Since the very emergence of South Korea till the democratization of power Women`s movement in South Korea was strongly connected with the democratization movement and the feminist agenda was not well defined. However, after the liberalization in the late 1980s, when there was no more necessity in removal of the dictatorship, the society paid attention to the persistent problems. Vital problems that women face in the world in whole and in South Korea in particular it became possible to speak about certain feminist agenda and certain demands of South Korean women.

Based on different historical background, different geopolitical and socio-cultural situation, feminist movement appeared to have completely different realizations in different parts of the world. It is impossible to talk about feminism as something monolithic. Feminist branches due to the different ways of development paid attention to completely different aspects. However, one thing is common for all the feminist branches throughout the world – a stand against discrimination of women. The problem of oppression was the main one during the rise and development of feminism in West and East. Since the very emergence, feminists (suffrage movement in the Western world) demanded the expenditure of civil rights and social welfare. The demands of women changed and expanded with history and sociopolitical situation in the concrete society.

Object of the research – feminist movement and feminist discourse in different parts of the world.

Subject of the research – the problems of women`s development reflected in the South Korean feminist discourse.

Research question of my master thesis - which aspects of the female social development does the current feminist discourse mostly reflect?

The main objectives of my master thesis are:

1. Figure out and analyze main tendencies of the feminist movement development in the West and in South Korea

2. Determine and examine main tendencies of the early Korean non-activist feminism

3. Uncover and explore activity of main feminist organizations in South Korea

4. Highlight and dissect reflection of the feminist activity in the South Korean media

5. Unveil and consider reflection of main problems in focus of the Korean feminist organizations in media

This work is divided in three chapters, each of them is divided in several paragraphs. In the first chapter I analyzed the main tendencies of the feminist movement development in the Western world and in South Korea. I gave a brief descriptive-normative survey of the feminist discourse in the western world and in South Korea. In the second chapter I explored development of the feminist movement in South Korea in the end of the XX century, government policy towards feminist movement and gender policy in general, history and activity of the main feminist organizations and centers. I also uncovered main problems that stay in focus of the South Korean feminist movement and analyzed some statistical data on the main feminist issues in the current times (for the last two decades). In the third chapter I will analyze main South Korean editorials with the focus on feminist organizations activity and problems with which these organizations try to cope with.

I also want to give a brief review of the sources that are used in the master thesis. As for the sources on the development of the Western and South Korean feminism I will use books, monographs and articles on different topics, related to the master thesis. For instance, there are sources on the history of women`s suffrage in the western world, on the history of the so-called three waves of the feminist movement. I will use writings of western feminists (Dworkin, Oakley, Baxandall etc.), who considered different aspects of the feminist agenda: civil rights, social welfare, violence, prostitution, pornography. Moreover, there are analyzed some works of post-colonial feminists: Suleri, Minh-ha, Spivak. They also provided view on the feminist movement, but with focus on the position of post-colonial country with their completely different experience in the liberation movements. In the research I also used writings on history of the Western and South Korean feminism. For instance, for the coverage of the Western feminism development I used articles and monographs of Miller, Engels, Snyder-Hall, who wrote about particular branches of the feminist movement or particular époques in the development of feminism.

Moreover, different scholarly works on the development of feminism in South Korea provide analysis of different factors of the movement`s development. For instance, Kim Yung Hee explores the concept of “new woman” that raised in the colonial Korea and played a significant role in the formation of the feminist consciousness on the Peninsula. Seung Kyung Kim, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie and Hyoung Cho examine the experience of the feminist movement before the liberalization of power in the late 1980s. Some other South Korean scholars (Jung, Nam, Shim, etc.) consider some vital problems of the South Korean feminist agenda: violence, gender discrimination, position of woman in family and on the labor market. These works help to provide the whole picture of the investigated problems that South Korean women face.

For the second chapter, in which I analyzed the main activity of major South Korean feminist organizations and the main issues of the feminist agenda. For this sake I used articles from the following primary sources: Chosun Ilbo, Dong-a Ilbo, Korea Herald, Korea Times, W-Dong-a Ilbo. I used articles dedicated to the Women`s Organizations` activity and to the problems that they raise.

I also concentrated on some secondary sources– for instance, monograph of Jean R. Renshaw “Korean Women Managers and Corporate Culture. Challenging tradition, choosing empowerment, creating change” (2011). In this monograph author analyzes main trends in the South Korean labor market, taking into a consideration historical, economic and social background, as well as the corporate culture in order to show the situation in the South Korean labor market with the focus on the women group.

Moreover, here is the monograph of Jesook Song “Living on your own. Single Women, Rental Housing, and Post-Revolutionary Affect in Contemporary South Korea” (2013), in which scholar analyzes several difficult cases of the single and mostly lonely women, that face several challenges in their lives: no desire to get married, difficulties with the stable employment, necessity to pay cashes and taxes, resistance to the social oppression. Articles gathered in the volume “Gender Division of Labor in Korea” (1994) edited by Cho Hyoung and Chang Pil-wha are also beneficial for this research. In the collected articles different authors write about role of the gender question in the labor market, taking into a consideration different fields of economy and social life (households, chemical industry, legal rights, women`s movement in South Korea). In the volume “Challenges for Women. Women`s Studies in Korea” (1986), edited by Chung Sei-wha there are researches on different sharp topics, connected with the women`s position in South Korea society (labor, family, women in small towns, school and university education). Both volumes were provided by Ehwa Woman`s University – that specializes in women`s and gender studies.

This research is made with the help of different methods. In the first and second chapter following methods of research are used:

1. Historical method

2. Narrative approach

3. Comparative analysis

4. Systematical analysis

The main method for the third chapter is the content analysis with the help of special program, MAXQDA. That is economy of place and time, however, this method is an opportunity to include a big media massive, as a result it shows quite clear results of media attention to one or another topic of the feminist agenda. Analysis of the articles that cover feminist organizations` activity is also provided – that helped to figure out main similarities and differences in coverage of different feminist organizations by different media. Content analysis in MAXQDA will be made with the usage of English articles. There are several arguments for this: there are no reliable programs for the content analysis of the Korean articles, the codes for the qualitative content analysis (in other words – special words and expressions) are universal – for instance, violence, patriarchy, feminism etc. Moreover, Korean texts from a particular journal are analyzed – in connection with specific topics. .

As for the methodology, social constructionism is used in this master thesis. According to the social constructionist approach, everything existing in reality is a product of social relationship – in other words, it is socially constructed. Each social construct can be changed throughput the social relationships. One of the major theorists in the sphere of social constructionism in connection with feminism is Nancy Hirschmann. In her work, The Subject of Liberty: Toward Freedom she considered the term of freedom in the context of feminism. According to her, human experience is not something natural, but something which is created by the human social relations. Hirschmann and other social constructionists are sure that all the desires, dreams, perceptions and persuasions are products of the social relationships. There are three main these of the social constructionists:

1. Reality is product of social relationships, practices and discourses

2. Things are socially constructed particularly by and in accord with discourse

3. Discourse of the dominant social groups is also predominant in the social construction process¹

Feminist theorists usually operate with the terms of dominance and oppression. Dominant male part of society is oppressive towards the female one. Dominant class has more privileges than the oppressed class, which suffers from different restrictions, including legislative ones.

According to Hirschmann, there are three ways of moderation of the feminist social constructionism:

1. Bearing in mind the fact that dominating patriarchal discourse does not construct the reality thoroughly

2. Holding that discourse in general does not construct the reality in details

3. Holding that social construction is not entire coverage of the human experience²

Hirschmann states that discourse of the dominant men is not always predominant one in the process of the social construction – otherwise women had no freedom at all. She calls it “paradox of the social construction”, claiming that socially constructed reality has an ambiguous nature as the social construction cannot get into every nook. Scholar is quite attentive to the notion of women`s freedom. It is a sharp question in the theory of social constructionism in general. Hirschmann supports Michel Faucault`s conception, in which he claimed that people are not only passive and socially constructed objects, but also active subjects that participate in creation of others and of themselves. People can operate in the system of social constructions, create their desires and perspectives. Hirschmann believes that women can redefine and recreate their contexts. Result of this recreation is the very emergence of the feminist movement. Women started to provide issues that are invoked by the historical and social experience of women: poverty, civil rights, domestic violence etc.³

This research also has limitations. I concentrated mostly on the social aspect of discourse, without paying attention to the cultural one (for instance, representation of the female image in popular culture) and to the linguistic one (because of lack of knowledge in linguistics of the Korean language).

At the end, I will draw a conclusion based on the complex analysis of the feminist movement in South Korea from three perspectives: from the historical one, from the analysis of the feminist organizations` activity and based on the content analysis of the South Korean media, especially with the focus on the sharpest problems of South Korean women.