The Role of women in Korean Culture - Case Study Example

My Own Family History. Kim’s Family Tree: Thesis: The Role of women in any society is considered as an important one as women have the capacity to make or break the world. It is indeed required to view the role of women in every social organization as how effectively they run the society. A family is formed only with the help of women, though history and tradition might regard women as inferior sex, the impact of women in a family and on the whole in a society is am powerful one, it is in the hands of women the well being of a family and the future generation depends. Korean culture and its customs are very complicated, as they give more importance to family relationships than any other country. Korean’s are tradition oriented; they have trends of Chinese and Japanese culture. As far as the role of women is concerned, Women of Korea, were like in other countries were also treated as inferior sex to men. They were looked upon as fertility symbol engaged in the growth of the generations. But as time went on the respect and importance for women have changed a lot, Particularly with the renovations in laws pertaining to equality of rights, and abolition of discrimination against women, favorable things have been introduced to enhance the role of women in an effective way. While considering the culture, Koreans, as mentioned before give more importance to family relationships. This could be found out from their way of living in a single house. The paternal relations do live together in the same home, where as the maternal relationships, once a women get married do not have any link with the paternal home, she would come in the maternal family relation tree. In Korean culture all things are done only with the permission from the family. Even now they give preference to arranged marriages. Man was considered to be the leader of the house, though after marriage a woman should live a life of cooperation and unity with her husband and her maternal relatives, the house hold as a whole should be under the supervision of man. “The undemocratic nature of the traditional Korean family arrangement [ expressed in the old saying, “IF the hen cries, the house is ruined”] maintains that man should have authority over the household.” [ Chung, Connie Korean Society and Women: Focusing on the Family. 1997] In the family circle the duty of the woman is considered to be very important in terms of taking care of the child. This could be well explained in the words of Seo Jin Young, he argues that, “Korean Society, to a large extent, still assumes that “ the mother’s first duty is to raise the child, and no one else can substitute for the mother” [Seo Jin Young. ‘Why Can?t A Woman?”. Dong Nyuk. 1991 http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/yisei/Koreansocietyandfocusingonthe women.htm My own experience with my family, has taught me the real world of a Korean family. As a whole joint family, which is still a prospective feature of the Korean culture, the first and predominant importance is given to the male gender in the family; this male gender should be the eldest of all. All the decisions have to be taken by the elders. My great grand mother, is the person who is still alive, but the decision is taken by her son, my grand father, this situation is due to fact that she is a female. This practice is still followed in the family. As far as the other women in my family are concerned they are paternal aunties, but as they get married they have to be another family. This could be understood by their surname. In Korean society, the chances for solitude for women is very less, as if they loose their husband or if they retire from their services they are supposed to live only with the other family members. So the feeling of solitude seems to very less in the elders. “Retired women do not know solitude in our country. They are surrounded by their family and social organizations” says A Korean Article [“ Life of Women in Korea” http://www.korea-is-one.org/article.php3?id_article=5] The history of women of Korea speak a lot on the low level consideration of women, and the treatment women as a inferior sex to man, and the discrimination and sexual harassment in the working places were there, but by the beginning of 1960s the innovations of laws have given them equal rights, both in the working places and in the society. While Comparing the history of Women in America with that of Korea, it makes a lot of difference, in the sense, American women were under the inferior treatment, for a very long time, until the stress on education raised its head, even then the education was prohibited up to school level. This condition changed only during the later half of the 19th century. Wifehood and mother hood were considered as the significant duties of a woman, this sounds similar with that of Korean culture. The Women’s International Center has to say that, “Women had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men….. in early days women were viewed as creative source of human life , intellectually inferior to men” [ “Women’s History in America”. http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm] 1960s witnessed a revolution in both equality of treatment as well as education for women in almost all the parts of the world. Though In America the right to vote was given to women in 1920, the role of women as a decision maker was very slow. Women’s decisions were not given importance. It was during the per civil war time that America witnessed large women participants involving themselves in many reform movements. While in Korea, women’s participation in Vietnam war was considerably good. Women were given rights to join the army as well. As far as the working place is concerned American women gained the full benefit of her work only after the laws such as “Equal Pay Act of 1963”[ which insisted on equal wages for both men and women], “Civil rights Act of 1964”[ which prohibited discrimination against of women] and the “Presidential Executive Order of 1967” [which prohibited bias against women in hiring by Government Contractors] says [“Women’s History in America”. http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm]. Korean Women did not seem to have had a worse situation like this during the earlier days. Since the Korean society is very clearly a culturally bound society, women have to undergo the customs and formalities of their family. This tradition is still found in many of the Korean families. But as they are culturally living, they do not seem to have a different opinion regarding the treatment; even in many families women feel that they should obey their family traditions. Though Korean women come up to a good level in education and other activities of the society, they are culturally bound op. In this regard they cannot be considered as being treated inferior to men. Officials are appointed, and the family has a type of small government running the show. These officials hold special meetings where they discuss things ranging from ancestral rights to repair of graves. The final decisions of these meetings are made by the oldest living male” says [Utterback, Ryan in “Korean Culture” http://www.koreanculture.org/history.htm] The official who is mentioned here is the eldest of the family or the eldest who exists in the family circles or relatives. The eldest should be the male, but as far as this rule or custom is concerned other women in the family do not seem to posses any kind of opposition against this. This could be supported very well by the research statement given by Yisei Magazine, it says that, “According to a poll taken by the Korean Women’s Improvement Center, 89.1% of Urban males and 76.3% of Urban females supported the statement, “The wife should follow her husband, “while only 9.7% of males and 21.9% of females opposed it”[ “ Life of Women in Korea” http://www.korea-is-one.org/article.php3?id_article=5] Regarding marriages, now days marriages between two people from different classes have been increasing but still this aspect is not approved by many families. Even the death rates are comparatively more in America than in Korea. As solitude life is possibly very low when compared to that of Americans. Like the polling result say those majorities of Korean women still follow their culture and give respect to their family values, marriages are also done under the responsibility of the elders. On the whole the role of Korean women and American women in the social circle has lot of differences. American society is influenced by the modernity but Korean society is still under the control of traditions and customs. The American women’s history has details of law corrections but family stories of Korean women do possess corrections only after a woman gets married, and performs the duties in her maternal house. She is given the rights to maintain the family, where as a man should take control of the outside work, earning for the family etc. In America, the government decides the laws and regulations and rights for women, where as in Korea, the eldest authority or person in the family, who should be a male should decide every thing. American women’s history, prove that women involved in reform movements to gain the rights for themselves, where as Korean women do not have annoy records in reform movements but they have participated in wars for their country. American history shows women struggling within the country, where as Korean women do that within their family, but in that case they do not actually struggle but ask for a suggestion with the elders who in turn review and give permission. References: “ Life of Women in Korea ”online. http://www.korea-is-one.org/article.php3?id_article=5] Utterback, Ryan “Korean Culture”online. http://www.koreanculture.org/history.htm] “Women’s History in America”. Online . http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm]. Seo Jin Young. ‘Why Can?t A Woman?”. Dong Nyuk. 1991. online http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/yisei/Koreansocietyandfocusingonthe women.htm Read More