저소득층 여성의 경제적 자립을 위한 행동연구(ACTION RESEARCH) - M구 Y동 ‘하나여성회’를 중심으로 -

윤양헌(Yoon Yang Hun),황은자(Hwang Eun Ja) 이화여자대학교 한국여성연구원 1992 여성학논집 Vol.8 No.-

The purpose of the present action research was to conduct develop programs that would promote the ability of economic self-helf for underprivileged women suffering a dual burden of sexual and class inequality. The participating group was members of Hana Women's Association and their family who agreed to the intentions of this action research, all of whom were residents of 41, Y-dong, M-ku in Seoul. The Y-dong 41 bloc is an urban poor island characterized by crowded and typically poor residential environment. Most of the women were engaged in home-based income earning activities such as pasting envelops, sewing shoes and children's clothes. They shared most characteristics of informal sector economic activities, low payment, simple manual labor, free work schedule, and ""the Oya system,"" the informal network headed by an oya who provided the work opportunities and earned from what the workers did. In the ""Oya system"" chain which is divided into many stages and consequently distributes earnings to many middlemen, the workers cannot be properly rewarded. This action research tried to develop programs for communal economic activities to be able to receive working material and obtain benefits directly from factories skipping the middle stages of the Oya system. In such a way the poor women were expected to be more fairly paid and to develop a community which would be a basis for their empowerment. In this research, a feminist approach was employed, which emphasized a cooperative participation of researchers and target women in the action research at an equal position. This action research was a part of a long-term community project that had implemented by Korean Women's Institute since 1984. The program from April 1987 to March 1991 was focused on achieving economic independence. During the period, the researchers tried to collect/listen opinions of the residents and reflect them on the programs before the communal economic activities were launched. For this purpose, various activities were accompanied, such as workshops for community women, small group meetings, health care for residents by Ewha medical team, day-care center (kindergarten), study rooms, and health education. A series of programs were conducted for economic self-help : management of ku-p’an’jang (community cooperative shop), vocational educations for part-time housemaid, walling skills, paper-clay handicrafts, and sweater- linking, and production of goods to sell. Most of these endeavors have benefited a few women but not others. The women participants lost interest easily when their products did not sell well or when jobs were not easily found. However, the women's association has become richer out of the savings of the workers, and the members have gradually become conscious of their communal interest. However, this action research was not free of shortcomings. They can be summarized as follows: First is methodological problem. With no precedent experience of action research like this and no detailed guidelines, the researchers had to make many trials and errors, which must have impact on the whole project. Secondly, administrative problems on overall programs can be pointed out. In the first place, the notion of ""poor/poverty"" was not clear for the researchers, which led them to bear charitable or philanthropic attitudes toward the target women unconsciously and unintentionally. In particular, the financial support of the institute (KWI) for their economic activities decisively served to foster their sense of dependency, even though it was small. The third problem was on respective economic programs. Inevitably there were trials and errors caused by taking action without proper plans, knowledge/understanding as well as sufficient experience on the current market situation. Furthermore, the researchers tended to depend upon decisions made by the women who were also insensitive to outer world to direct the programs. And the individ

저소득층 여성의 경제적 자립을 위한 행동연구(ACTION RESEARCH) : Hana Women's Association of Y-dong in Seoul M구 Y동 '하나여성회'를 중심으로

황은자,윤양헌 이화여대 한국여성연구소 1991 여성학논집 Vol.8 No.-

The purpose of the present action was to conduct develop programs that would promote the ability of economic self-helf for underprivilegeed women suffering a dual burden of sexual and class inequality. The participating group was members of Hana Women's Association and their family who agreed to the intentions of this action research, all of whom were residents of 41, Y-dong, M-ku in Seoul. The Y-dong 41 bolc is an urban poor island characterized by crowded and typically poor residential environment. Most of the women were engaged in home-based income earning activities such as pasting envelops, sewing shoes and children's clothes. They shared most characteristics of informal sector economic activities, low payment, simple manual labor, free work schedule, and “the Oya system,”the informal network headed by an oya who procided the work opportunities and earned from what the workers did. In the“Oya system”chain which is divided into many stages and consequently distributes earnings to many middlemen, the workers cannot be properly rewarded. This action research tried to develop programs for communal economic activities to be able to receive working material and obtain benefits directly from factories skipping the middle stages of the Oya system. In such a way the poor women were expected to be more fairly paid and to develop a community which would be a basis for their empowerment. In this research, a feminist approach was employed, which emphasized a cooperative participarion of researchers and target women in the action research at an equal position. This action research was a part of a long-term community project that had implemented by Korean Women's Institute since 1984. The program from April 1987 to March 1991 was focused on achieving economic independence. During the period, the researchers tried to collect/listen opinions of the residents and reflect them on the programs before the communal economic activities were launched. For this purpose, various activities were accompanied, such as workshops for community women, small group meetings, health care for residents by Ewha medical team, day-care center (kindergarten), study rooms, and health education. A series of programs were conducted for economic self-help:management of ku-p'anjang(community cooperative shop), vocational educations for part-time housemaid, walling skills, paper-clay handicrafts, and sweater-linking, and production of goods to sell. Most of these endeavors have benefited a few womne but not others. The women participants lost interest easily when their products did not sell well or when jobs were not easily found. However, the women's association has become richer out of the savings of the workers, and the members have gradually become conscious of their communal interest. However, this action research was not free of shortcomings. They can be summarized as follows: First is methodological problem. With no precedent experience of action research like this and no detailed guidelines, the researchers had to make many trials and errors, which must have impact on the whole project. Secondly, administrative problems on overall programs can be pointed out. In the first place, the notion of“poor/poverty”was not clear for the researchers, which led them to bear charitable or philanthropic attitudes toward the target women unconsciously and unintentionally. In particular, the financial support of the institute(KWI) for their economic activities decisively served to foster their sense of dependency, even though it was small. The third problem was on respective economic programs. Inevitably there weretrials and errors caused by taking action without proper plans, knowledge/understanding as well as sufficient experience on the current market situation. Furthermore, the researchers tended to depend upon decisions made by the women who were also insensitive to outer world to direct the programs. And the individualistic interest in money by the participants often discouraged the sense of community. However, more importantly, for some women self-confidence and self-satisfaction were valuable out come prior to making money for their family. From these experiences,the researchers became realized that mental/psychological self-reliance should be crucial. Consequently, for underprivileged women's self-help, mental/psychological independence should be established before economic self-help, only when one becomes a real center of her life in self-confidence. In short, the action research project gave ??? that programs to promote women's mental/psycholocal self-reliance or consciousness-raising should be further strengthened and should precede economic self-help programs for the poor women. A combined empowerment programs of economic and psychological independence, if possible, may be preferable.