ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

The purpose of this research was to show that women’s empowerment was a necessary condition in the abolition of the Hojuje by examining various kinds of women’s political participation and behavioral patterns involved in the movement to abolish the Hojuje. What this research was trying to investigate was that although to a certain degree it may be true that social movements toward democracy since the 1980s in Korea had a strong impact on the changing social climate, it did not necessarily or automatically change the society to a more equal one from gender perspective. This would mean that it should be necessary for women themselves to be empowered to have a strong political power in order to change the law, and thus to change the society.In examining the abolition process of the Hojuje, it was clear that Korean women’s political participation through those long struggling years became a solid foundation for raising the status of women in the society by providing empowering forces for women to change even the laws. It was also clear that in the process women’s organizations or groups grew to become a negotiating power force against the government. In addition, changes of women voters’ consciousness and of roles played by women National Assembly members as law makers also clearly tell us that they are the crucial forces in order to obtain true equal rights by women from gender perspective.