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East Asian Social Movements pp 181–203Cite as

Mapping South Korean Women’s Movements During and After Democratization: Shifting Identities

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Part of the book series: Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies ((NCSS))

Abstract

Korean women’s movements emerged in the late 19th century as resistance against Confucian patriarchal politics and culture. Following the period of Japanese colonialism (1905–1945) and later dictatorships, the women’s movement continued to grapple with women’s human rights and social and political freedom. This historical trajectory shows how Korean women’s movements shaped and were affected by the political context. Since the onset of democratization in the early 1990s, women’s movements have experienced significant changes and challenges. Over time, the subjects, issues, and political spaces of women’s movement discourses have widened. Through this process, the identities of the women in the movements have been changing too. In the 2000s, a new generation of feminists came into the movement and deepened its theoretical perspectives on unequal gender power relations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Joining the association were autonomous women’s organisations such as Korean Women Workers Association, Korean Women’s Hot Line, the Korean Women’s Association for Sisterhood and Equality, Another Culture, Research Group for Women and Society, Korean Women’s Association of Women Theologians, Korean Association of Christian Women etc.

  2. 2.

    Both Presidents Kim Young-Sam and Kim Dae-Jung were members of the social democratisation movement during the 1970s and the 1980s, and there were close connections between the democratic ruling parties and activists in the Minjung movement.

  3. 3.

    Even though women activists in Minjung women’s movements and KWAU were and are influenced by feminist ideas, they do not define themselves feminists until recently.

  4. 4.

    These groups include Seoul Women’s Trade Union, Korean Association of Women’s Unions, Menstruation Festival Project, Women Against War, disabled Women’s group Sympathy, Feminist Journal IF, feminist Online Journal Ilda, lesbian groups and a feminist webzine Unni-network etc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gender Studies in Action, Graduate School of NGO Studies, SongKongHoe University, Seoul, South Korea

    Song-Woo Hur

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  1. Song-Woo Hur
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Correspondence to Song-Woo Hur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    Jeffrey Broadbent

  2. Sociology Program, Southwest Minnesota State University, State St. 1501, Marshall, 56258, Minnesota, USA

    Vicky Brockman

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Hur, SW. (2011). Mapping South Korean Women’s Movements During and After Democratization: Shifting Identities. In: Broadbent, J., Brockman, V. (eds) East Asian Social Movements. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09626-1_9

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