TY - JOUR
T1 - Women’s subordination in Confucian culture
T2 - Shifting breadwinner practices
AU - Koo, Eunjung
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Asian Center for Women's Studies, Ewha Womans University.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - By tracing everyday breadwinner practices from the early industrial period to the democratic period (largely between 1960s and 2000s) in Korea, this study aims to illustrate the changes in dynamics relating to women’s subordination. I conducted 64 interviews with women and men of two generations. These revealed that the Confucian hierarchy of male supremacy continued into the early industrial period, despite the significant contributions of women to earning a living for their families. In the democratization generation, which grew up during the period of rapid economic growth and democracy, male respondents internalized the breadwinner role and saw this as partial justification for their dominance. This implies that rationalizations for gender relationships change over time, for example, from viewing male supremacy as “natural law” to considering it as a result of women’s economic inferiority. This also suggests reconsideration of the link between masculinity and the breadwinner role.
AB - By tracing everyday breadwinner practices from the early industrial period to the democratic period (largely between 1960s and 2000s) in Korea, this study aims to illustrate the changes in dynamics relating to women’s subordination. I conducted 64 interviews with women and men of two generations. These revealed that the Confucian hierarchy of male supremacy continued into the early industrial period, despite the significant contributions of women to earning a living for their families. In the democratization generation, which grew up during the period of rapid economic growth and democracy, male respondents internalized the breadwinner role and saw this as partial justification for their dominance. This implies that rationalizations for gender relationships change over time, for example, from viewing male supremacy as “natural law” to considering it as a result of women’s economic inferiority. This also suggests reconsideration of the link between masculinity and the breadwinner role.
KW - Breadwinning practice
KW - Confucian culture
KW - generation
KW - South Korea
KW - women’s subordination
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071005771&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/12259276.2019.1648065
DO - 10.1080/12259276.2019.1648065
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85071005771
SN - 1225-9276
VL - 25
SP - 417
EP - 436
JO - Asian Journal of Women's Studies
JF - Asian Journal of Women's Studies
IS - 3
ER -