Cultural Confinement: Challenges to South Korean Feminism

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Koeval, Holly
- College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Abstract

This thesis examines the challenges to gender equality and the resistance thereto in the realms of law, language, and sexuality as well as the link to Confucianism in these systems of inequality. While Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism do not hold as much outright power in modern South Korea, the vestiges of their impacts remain and continue to be an oppositional force to calls for women’s rights through feminism. The three aspects I chose to write about contain clear examples of modern forms of sexism in South Korea, as well as continuities of Confucian thoughts regarding women’s roles and women’s statuses in society at large. Methodologically, I utilize newspapers, journal articles, feminist websites, and existing scholarship to create a cohesive argument about the continuous oppression faced by women. This thesis finds that despite progress towards gender equality, South Korea still falls short in these realms. This inequality needs to be addressed in order to increase the quality of life for Korean women. The South Korean election of the conservative candidate Yoon Suk-yeol demonstrates that misogynistic and sexist beliefs about women continue to be upheld in Korean society at large. The results of this thesis indicate that change is slowly ongoing but still necessary for full gender equality to be reached.

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Kief, I. Jonathan
- College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

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