The Women's Movement in South Korea Revisited

Abstract

Abstract: Using unique survey data collected in 2000 and 2010 and a novel approach to the study of women's movement, this study examines the extent to which the women's movement has persisted and/or changed over the past decade in South Korea. The core emphasis of the paper is on whether Korean women's organizations have changed mobilization repertoires that are important for movement formation, and if so, how and why. The findings indicate two things. First, on one hand, the women's organizations have displayed similar patterns of resource mobilization (i.e., financial situation) over a ten-year period. On the other hand, women have used or have been willing to use different political tactics and alliance strategies to pursue their goals. Second, the younger women's groups, compared to their older counterparts, have collaborated more among themselves and have also been more satisfied with other public and private sectors in addressing women's issues and formulating appropriate policies.

Keywords:

• women's movement
• Korean women's organizations
• resource mobilization
• South Korea

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Won Hong-Kim at the Korean Women's Development Institute for information provided on Korean women's organizations. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Georgia Political Science Association, Savannah, GA, November 8–10, 2012.

Notes

1. A movement in this study is defined as a collectivity of people seeking to achieve social change through collective action. For an excellent review on comparative women's movement research see Daren Beckwith, “Beyond compare? Women's movements in comparative perspective,” European Journal of Political Research 37 (2000): 431–468.

2. Georgina Waylen, “Women and Democratization,” World Politics 46, no. 3 (1994): 327–354.

3. Sunhyuk Kim, The Politics of Democratization in Korea (Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000).

4. Rose J. Lee, “Democratic Consolidation and Gender Politics in South Korea,” in Democracy and the Status of Women in East Asia, ed. Rose J Lee and Cal Clark, 123–142 (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000); Kyung-Hee Kim, “Success and Failure Tasks of Korean Women's Movement's Past 20 Years,” Gender Review 5 [in Korean] (2007): 46–50; Korean Women's Development Institute, News (06-07-2007), available at http://www2.kwdi.re.kr (Accessed on 6/17/2011).

5. The success of a movement is judged in terms of its impact and outcomes. Its impact is judged in terms of specific reforms. With regard to specific reforms, the women's groups in Korea have had a degree of success in terms of women's legislation. Issues like equal rights and domestic violence were incorporated into legislation.

6. For an exception, see Aie-Rie Lee and Mikyung Chin, “The Women's Movement in South Korea,” Social Science Quarterly 88, no. 5 (2007): 1205–1226.

7. We owe this section to Lee and Chin, “The Women's Movement in South Korea.”

8. A. Oberschall, Social Conflict and Social Movements (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973); John McCarthy and Mayer Zald, “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements,” American Journal of Sociology 82 (1977): 1212–41; William Gamson, The Strategy of Social Protest (Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press, 1975); Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978); J. Craig Jenkins, “Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements,” Annual Review of Sociology 9 (1983): 527–53; Mayer N. Zald and John D. McCarthy, eds., Social Movements in an Organizational Society: Collected Essays (New Brunswick, Oxford: Transaction Books, 1987).

9. J. Freeman, “Resource Mobilization and Strategy,” in The Dynamics of Social Movements, ed. M.N. Zald, J.M. McCarthy, 167–89 (Cambridge, M.A: Winthrop, 1979).

10. Zald and McCarthy, eds., Social Movements in an Organizational Society: Collected Essays; John McCarthy and Mayer Zald, The Trend of Social Movements in America: Professionalization and Resource Mobilization (Morristown, New Jersey: General Learning Press, 1973); Russell J. Dalton, The Green Rainbow (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994); Russell J. Dalton and Manfred Kuechler, Challenging the Political Order (New York: Oxford University, 1990).

11. Joyce Gelb, “Feminism and Political Action,” in Challenging the Political Order, ed. Manfred Kuechler and Russell J. Dalton, 151 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).

12. P. Bert Klandermans, “Linking the “Old” and “New”: Movement Networks in the Netherlands,” in Challenging the Political Order, ed. Manfred Kuechler and Russell J. Dalton, 122–127 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).

13. Korean Institute for Women & Politics (KIWP), “Political Empowerment of Women,” (2011), available at http://www.kiwp.or.kr (Access on 6/23/2011); Korean Women's Development Institute, An Evaluation of Governmental Finance Assistance for Women's Organizations and Alternatives [in Korean] (1998): 4.

14. Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Labor (MHWL), Cabinet Office in Korea, Statistical Yearbook on Women's Organization [In Korean] (1999); Ministry of Gender Equality (MGE), Cabinet Office in Korea, Status of Women's Groups [in Korean] (2008).

15. Kyung-Hee Kim, “Success and Failure Tasks of Korean Women's Movement's Past 20 Years,” Gender Review 5 [in Korean] (2007): 46–50.

16. To name a few, Woman Lifelong Resources Development Institute, Korea Woman Incubating Education Association, Korean Federation of Women's Science & Technology Association, Korea IT Business Women's Association.

17. For example, The Magdalena Community, Korea Women Migrants Human Rights Center, Unification Korean Women's Association.

18. Marian Lief Palley, “Women's Status in South Korea,” Asian Survey 30 (December 1990): 1137.

19. Kim, “Success and Failure Tasks of Korean Women's Movement's Past 20 Years,” 48–49.

20. Other accomplishments are to name a few: adopting the Affirmative Action (AA) to public areas (i.e., public servants and legislators), revising the Women's Development Act and the Political Party Act (e.g., adoption and enhancement of the quota system for women candidates in proportional representation and in nominating candidates for local constituencies), strengthening the Equal Employment Act (e.g., 90-day mandatory maternity leave, childcare leave allowance) and the human rights of women's (e.g., end to human trafficking, offer protection for victims of sex peddlers and sex trafficking). Also refer to Kim, “Success and Failure Tasks of Korean Women's Movement's Past 20 Years.”

21. Mikiko Eto, “Women's movement in Japan: the intersection between everyday life and politics,” Japan Forum 17, no. 3 (2005): 311–333.

22. The radical organizations are a product of the latter half of the 1980s, whose aims are to promote causes involving social or political reform, and to support the interests of lower class women. The radical women's groups are identified with broader human rights issues, such as preventing the torture of political prisoners, democratization of the political system, and reunification with North Korea. Gender-specific issues addressed by these groups are women's labor rights, prevention of prostitution and sexual violence, and changes in the provisions of the Family Law. See Mikyung Chin, “Self-Governance, Political Participation, and the Feminist Movement in South Korea,” in Democracy and the Status of Women in East Asia, ed. Rose J. Lee and Cal Clark, 91–104 (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000).

23. For a detailed description of the two groups, see Lee and Chin, “The Women's Movement in South Korea.”

24. Rose J. Lee and Cal Clark, ed., Democracy and the Status of Women in East Asia (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000).

25. Korean Women's Development Institute, Statistical Yearbook on Women [in Korean] (2005).

26. Jungja Han and Sangwon Lee, A summary report on “Study on the Measures to activate Cooperation Projects between the Government and Women's Groups,” Women's Studies Forum 21 (2005), available at http://www.kiwp.or.kr (Access on 6/25/2011).

27. Other response categories asked: reshuffle decision making body through generational replacement (7%), strengthen alliances with other women's groups (18%), develop legislation on women-related policies (36%), and strengthen mutual relationship with public-private sector (14%).

28. Han and Jung's 2002 online research found similar results from 20 women's organizations (Han and Jung, 2003). The organizational purposes stated are: general women's movement (30.5%), community development (12.1%), occupational organizations (10.5%), welfare and friendship (7.8%), voluntary service organizations (6.6%), and educational resources (5.9%).

29. M. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action (New York: Schocken, 1968).

30. Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh, Social Movements in Politics: A Comparative Study (London and New York: Longman, 1997): 5.

31. Korean Women's Development Institute, Activity Reports (1992): 2.

32. The Korean evidence demonstrates the global reach of resource mobilization theory in predicting protest: a curvilinear model of resource effects (Meyer, 2004; Goldstone, ed., 2003). At relatively high resource levels in 2010 as opposed to 2000, KWOs may have had ready access to conventional channels of influence, and thus protest less often because it might alienate political authorities or supporters. Consequently, we claim that protest was more common with relatively moderate levels of resources that provided a sufficient basis for political action by women's groups that were not accepted within the dominant political structure.

33. J. Craig Jenkins, “Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements,” Annual Review of Sociology 9 (1983): 543.

34. Marian Lief Palley, “Women's Status in South Korea,” Asian Survey 30 (December 1990): 1138–1139.

35. Thanks to the revision of the Family Law, the age-old patriarchal family headship known as “hoju” was finally abolished in the late 2000s. See Korean Women's Development Institute, An Evaluation of Governmental Finance Assistance for Women's Organizations and Alternatives [in Korean] (1998): 5.

36. Gender Equality Committee, Study on Continuity and Improvement of Women Politicians’ Career [in Korean] (Seoul: Cabinet Office in Korea, 2009); Houng-Jun Kim, “6.2 Local Election and Women's Political Participation,” Gender Review [in Korean] (Spring, 2010): 16–17.

37. The Special Committee on Women became The Ministry of Women in 2001, and its name changed again into the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2005, with its expansion of functions including family matters.

38. See, for example Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

39. Yoonhee Kang, “Korean Civil Society and Trust-Building between South Korea and the United States,” Asia Policy 13 (2012): 70–71.

40. Korean Women's Development Institute, Activity Reports (1991); Korean Women's Development Institute, “Special Issue: Local Election and Women,” Gender Review [in Korean] (2010).

41. The KNCW, in particular, made a thorough comparison of candidates’ election pledges and published its analysis. Noticeably, several issues previously considered private, such as violence against women, day care, sexuality, and many others, were prominently included in the platforms and programs of many individual candidates and national political parties. See, for example, Chung Hee Lee, “Campaign Strategy of Interest Groups in Korea,” paper presented at the 1993 APSA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. (1993).

42. Kim, “6.2 Local Election and Women's Political Participation.”

43. The response categories on the question: “What do you think must be done to solve the women's issues (e.g., equal employment, equal pay)?” Choose in order the two most important. See Table in the Appendix.

44. See note 43.

45. Karl-Oskar Lindgren, Magdalena Inkinen, & Sten Widmalm, “Who Knows Best what the People Want: Women or Men?: A Study of Political Representation in India,” Comparative Political Studies 42, no. 1 (2009): 31–55.