The Change of Women's Social Status in Korea: Progress and Reaction

Abstract

This paper examines changes in Korean women's social status over the last 30 years, both before and after the enactment of the Women's Development Act in 1995. Social status is a social form of differentiation and value assessment, and the status of men and women are positioned differently within its process. Thus, social status is not naturally granted, but it shows the vicissitudes of society. Women's social status appears in the context of overall society, and this research examines the type variation of gender equality- as gender neutrality, gender recognition, and de-gendering or deconstructing the gender- as the status changes in politics, economy, human rights through statistics, and the status changes through laws and systems. By tracing the improvement in Korean women's social status over the last 30 years, I show that women's social status has become practically equal to men's in many social sectors, such as in occupation, legal rights, education, political participation, and other areas. However, despite all this evidence of official equality, there are still questions about the true improvement of women's social status and gender equality due to remaining inequalities, such as the scarcity of women in professional fields, the prevalent imbalance in housework, and the increase of sexual and domestic violence towards women, the coherent belief in gender differences, and others. In the future, the endeavor for the improvement of women's social status should explain the paradoxical inequality hidden underneath the superficial success that has been seen thus far.