This study focuses on the food safety problems revealed in candlelight protest in 2008 and on the reason why women actively participated in it. Women have been responsible for domestic works in the gender division of labor, positioning themselves as t...
This study focuses on the food safety problems revealed in candlelight protest in 2008 and on the reason why women actively participated in it. Women have been responsible for domestic works in the gender division of labor, positioning themselves as the primary agency in charge of food security. Through the candlelight protest, whose rapid spread was facilitated by the consumers’ cooperative movements, women tried to change the social attitudes toward the food safety. In this regard, this study concentrates on women’s involvement in producing safe food, the combination between cooperative movement and the career as a housewife, and the possibility to reinterpret the invisible “food work(or the kitchen work)” through ‘A’ cooperative movement and ‘B’ workers’ collective. ‘The worker’s collective refers to a social work in which participants invest, manage, and work.
In the context of the women’s history in environmental movement, consumers' cooperatives emerging in the late 1980s as food safety became an issue. They spread as a form of the movement in the 1990s, particularly playing a crucial role in empowering women politically. Nonetheless, women have been considered as an individual ‘consumer’ or ‘purchaser’ rather than an activist having the empowerment. Accordingly, this study concentrates on how women’s consumption could be reinterpreted from the eco-feminism perspective.
At first, in the cooperative movement, women are becoming “food citizens” who can control their food, support local food movement, establish mutual trust with producers and farmers, and make relationship through the alternative food networks such as direct dealing between the city people and the farmers.
Second, the members of ‘A’ cooperative made ‘B’ workers’ collective with an aim to expand local ‘salim(living)’ movement. Since 2008, ‘B’ workers’ collective, one of the cooperatives, has provided eco-friendly food service to about 120 kindergarteners in YMCA Pre-school sports program in Anyang. ‘A’ cooperative has helped ‘B’ workers’ collective with its accumulated knowledge and experience. In doing so, it has provided for economic support, coordinated members’ roles, and practiced democratic management.
Third, women became an active agent through the cooperative movement. By utilizing their housekeeping experiences, they expanded their “food work,” which was usually performed just in their own kitchens, to the public domain, crossed the borderline between the producer and the consumer, and established the networks of caring. With its own experiences as an organization which led the local “salim” movement, the ‘A’ cooperative launched the B workers’ collective. The ‘B’ collective’s success can be attributed to the ‘A’ organization’s supports. The ‘A’ 1) helped the ‘B’ organization in finance and management, 2) mediated the members of ‘B’ so that they could perform in a democratic way, and 3) used its own networks to promote ‘B’s activities. Although it turned out that the hard work prevented the members of ‘B’ collective from feeling communal spirit, the work condition—five hours a day, two to three days a week—made it possible for women to balance between work and life.
Fourth, domestic work can be reinterpreted in the workers’ collective. The household wisdom of “housewives” was one of the critical forces that led the workers’ collective to expand socially. The ‘B’ organization focuses not just on providing everyday meals, but also on taking good care of children’s’ mind and body with the healthy foods. As its members are well aware that cooperative movement is to promote eco-friendly food to the wider population, they themselves reinterpret their works, regardless of what the social norms say. In a self-organized movement, women had the chance to enhance their capacities in managing the community in a democratic way and to play a role in restoring the community. In this regard, workers’ collective can be viewed as an alternative model of the civic movements.