‘A room of one's own’: the meaning of spatial autonomy for unmarried women in neoliberal South Korea

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of single South Korean women in their late twenties to late thirties in their pursuit of an independent living space. Looking at the struggles of these women to acquire ‘a room of one's own’, I first argue that the process of their spatial independence reveals the problematic inherent in South Korea's heterosexually marriage-centered housing and loan-lending structure. Further, rather than simply portraying these women as victims of the structure, I argue that the dominant interpretation of spatial independence of single women inadvertently buttresses the ideal selfhood of the neoliberal labor market. Applying Foucault's theorization of the technologies of the self that are instrumental to liberal governmentality, and Marxist theories of labor and finance capital in late capitalism, this ethnographic study engages in a broad discussion of changes in subjectivity and structure that take place under conditions of neoliberalism. In contributing to discussions of neoliberalism, I show that a progressive liberal ethos is not innocent of the development of neoliberalism.

Este artículo analiza las experiencias de mujeres solteras surcoreanas de cerca de treinta años hasta poco menos de cuarenta en su búsqueda de un espacio independiente para vivir. Observando las dificultades de estas mujeres por conseguir ‘una habitación propia’, primero sostengo que el proceso de su independencia espacial revela la problemática inherente en la estructura de préstamo y vivienda, heterosexualmente centrada en el matrimonio existente en Corea del Sur. Más aún, en vez de simplemente describir a estas mujeres como víctimas de la estructura, sostengo que la interpretación dominante de la independencia espacial de las mujeres solteras refuerza inadvertidamente el ideal de individualidad del mercado laboral neoliberal. Aplicando la teorización de Foucault de las tecnologías de individualidad que son instrumentales a la gobermentalidad liberal, y teorías marxistas de capital laboral y financiero en el capitalismo tardío, este estudio etnográfico se sumerge en una discusión amplia de los cambios en la subjetividad y la estructura que tienen lugar bajo las condiciones del neoliberalismo. Haciendo una contribución a las discusiones sobre el neoliberalismo, muestro que un ethos liberal progresista no es inocente del desarrollo del neoliberalismo.

Keywords:

• spatial autonomy
• self-sufficiency
• neoliberalism
• financial capital
• single women
• South Korea

Keywords:

• autonomía espacial
• autosuficiencia
• neoliberalismo
• capital financiero
• mujeres solteras
• Ceorea del Sur

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my informants (Ms. Ch'a, Ms. Im, Ms. Chin, Ms. Lee, Ms. Oh and Ms. Ryu), Jiwon Bang, Jin Yu-mi, Pak Su-jin, Jane Springer, Kris Meen, the Gender, Place and Culture editor Beverley Mullings and the four anonymous reviewers of this article. This work was generously supported by the Korea Research Foundation (KRF 05-R-28) and the Academy of Korean Studies Grant (AKS-2006-R-48).

Notes

 1. The male intellectuals include Kim Chi-ha (an influential leftist intellectual and poet), Kim Yong-ok (an erudite philosopher of Eastern religion) and Ma Kwang-su (a literature professor who wrote sensational novels on women as pure sexual objects).

 2. Confucian ideology has been present in South Korea since the late Chosôn period of the seventeenth century. For a gendered historical account of the Chosôn dynasty, see Haboush (1991) and Deuchler (1992). For more details on the current practices of Confucian family, gender and marriage conventions, see Janelli and Janelli (1982) and Kendall (1996).

 3. ‘Single independent women’ in Korean is rendered pihon tongnip yôsông. Pihon means unmarried, tongnip refers to independent and yôsông means women. Pihon yôsông is more idiomatic among Koreans but I inserted tongnip (independent) to highlight that they constitute an independent household: the majority of South Korean single women live at their parents' place as ‘dependent’ family members. Although the English translation does not reveal the subtlety, this term, pihon, is consciously chosen by the women themselves. Compared with earlier terms, such as ‘mihon’, meaning ‘not yet married’, ‘pihon’ is a neologism, referring to ‘single’ or ‘unmarried’ without implying that marriage is a destined life course. The term was created and promoted by feminists who are critical of the marriage institution for limiting women's individual self-development. On 10 March 2007, the Pihon Festival, a feminist event, was hosted by Ôn'nine dot.com, a young generation feminist portal site (www.unninet.net). In contrast, ‘toksin’ has similar negative connotations to ‘spinster’ (Yi and Park 2003). While I have not included divorced women in the analysis for this article, I would like to compare the experience of unmarried and divorced women in future.

 4. Foucault considers ethics to be a relationship to the self as one seeks truth and enhancement by following the logic of a truth regime (1988, 1994). To him, ethics refers to temporal-spatial specific guidelines of telos-oriented behavior and thinking about how to care for oneself, as well as how to make relationships with others, both of which are related to technologies of self and to the governing of one and all at once.

 5. My conceptualization of neoliberalism is based on Focauldian liberal governmentality (Burchell 1999; Foucault 1990, 1991; Gordon 1991; Rose 1999), Marxist theories of the capitalist state evolvement (Clarke 2004; Harvey 2005; Hindess 2004; Jessop 2002; Peck 2001; Perelman 2000) and builds upon recent anthropological literature of capitalism and neoliberal governmentality (Anagnost 2006; Ferguson 2006; Gill 2000; Gupta 2001; Hoffman 2006; Kingfisher 2002; Li 2007; Moore 2005; Nugent 2002; Ong and Collier 2005; Pun 2005; Rofel 2006; Yan 2003). I also draw on the work of sociologists and geographers (Brenner and Theodore 2002; Mitchell K. 2004; Mitchell T. 2002).

 6. In Ms. Ryu's case, masculine appearance is admittedly one reason that her parents gave up pressuring her to get married. I develop the theme of sexuality (both masculine appearance and sexual orientation) in another paper.

 7. Since the liberalization of the education system in South Korea in the late 1990s, many tutors/teachers have been hired as temporary contract/part-time workers (Park and Abelmann 2005). In the context of the neoliberal job market – with a reduction in stable jobs and an expansion of unstable/precarious jobs – after-school private education is one of the major job markets for women.

 8. The Korea Labor Research Institute website http://news.media.daum.net/economic/industry/200705/17/donga/v16764360.html.

 9. For changes of the welfare system between pre-Crisis and post-Crisis eras, see Song (2009).

10. For the social impact of the Crisis in neoliberalizing gender and family politics, see Kim and Finch (2002) and Song (2006a).

11. As an example of using the minus account, Ms. Chin, in her late thirties and holding a precarious career as an uncertified translator (after having quit her relatively stable job in a small company during the crisis, and seeking freedom of travel to fulfill her passion for life) cannot help but rely on the overdraft available to her on her debit card because she did not want to depend on her family.

12. Chosôn ilbo [Chosôn Daily] July 6–20, 1998. http://anu.andong.ac.kr/∼soongu/word/bokkeuil.htm.

13. The liberal ethos itself makes the self/individual a commodity in the labor market (Hindess 2004; Perelman 2000; Read 2001). However, the neoliberal ethos exploits every corner of the self as a marketable or market-centered component (Guala 2006; Lemke 2001, 2002; Seo 2005; Song 2007b).