This study conducted a discourse analysis focusing on the 'women' welfare system in the 1960s and 1970s and newspaper articles published at that time. In particular, this paper aims to critically examine the influence of institutions in the process of...
This study conducted a discourse analysis focusing on the 'women' welfare system in the 1960s and 1970s and newspaper articles published at that time. In particular, this paper aims to critically examine the influence of institutions in the process of discourse formation and confirm how the created discourse on women can affects women. Based on this research objective, the main representative research question was set as "How was the discourse on women in need of protection and women not in need of protection in the 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」 formulated in newspaper articles and the ‘women’ welfare system in the 1960s and 1970s?" The following sub-research questions were also investigated. What was the role of ‘women’ welfare policies including 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」 in discourse formation on the women in need of protection and women not in need of protection in the 1960s and 1970s? How did the discourse on women formed by newspaper articles and ‘women’ welfare policies define women’s identities and how did they divide women?
In order to solve the research problem, Foucault’s theory, which describes the power in the order of sovereignty power / discipline power / bio power and the concept of witch hunt and colonization suggested by Federici and Mies were examined as theoretical backgrounds. As research methods, Foucault’s process of exclusion and Fairclough's critical discourse analysis were used. Based on the 'women' welfare policies and the newspaper articles from the 1960s and 1970s, this study analyzed the classification of women assorted by Foucault’s process of exclusion at the first stage and examined the identification and image of women formed by Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. Among 1,696 articles extracted by entering the keyword ‘prostitution’ in <Naver News Library>, 1,637 articles were selected, excluding 59 articles about novels or advertisements. In addition, the 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」, which played the role of the basic law for the 'women' welfare system in the 1960s, and the 'women' welfare-related ordinances, order, and rules were examined.
In the 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」 and 'women' welfare policies, women are divided into women in need of protection and women not in need of protection. The women in need of protection defined by 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」 refers to ‘women in prostitution’ and ‘women at risk of prostitution’. According to the ordinances of women and women businesses, the women not in need of protection refer to general women.
The summary of the research results is as follows. First, ‘women in prostitution’ are identified as promiscuous girls who moved to the city without a plan or resources and disadvantaged girls who participated in the 4.19 movement. Also, ‘women in prostitution’ are treated as infiltrators in general residential spaces and objects to be lived in the institutions. ‘Women in prostitution’ were symbolized as a social evil and used as a social means to secure the legitimacy of the Park Chung Hee regime. By allowing prostitution in a limited area and banning prostitution with the 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」, the nation and society assumed sex worker as contaminated sexually transmitted disease carriers and exploited them as the disciplined economic person who earns foreign exchange for the country and society.
Secondly, according to the 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」, ‘women who are likely to be a prostitute in terms of their environment and sexual behavior’ mainly directed women who were working in the city after leaving their hometown, such as housemaids and female factory workers. They were the breadwinners of their families under poor conditions, while women earned their own income independently outside their homes. They were major industrial powers during the developmental state, but their independence often became a threat to a patriarchal society. Therefore, the state and society stigmatized their sexuality and named them women concerned of being prostitutes. This was a strategy of the nation and society to monopolize women’s labor power. On the other hand, the ‘women’ welfare policy for working women was separated from women at home, and there were few welfares for small-business workers other than lodging and basic technical education operated by welfare centers.
Third, sex worker are pathologized by clinical science, and the role of protecting them was imposed on ‘general women’. The ‘women’ welfare for general women was composed of liberal education on childrearing and housework at the womenfolk business center. General women were mobilized for national family planning projects. General women had to become rational housewives and take care of pathological women with scientific love. They were distinguished from ‘women in prostitution’ or ‘women concerned of being prostitutes’ as the ‘women’ welfare system separated general women. However, general women were also included in the category of ‘prostitution’. When general women were engaged in social activities outside of their homes where they do reproductive labor, they became delinquent housewives.
Women are categorized into ‘women in prostitution’, ‘women concerned of being prostitutes’, and ‘general women’ who do not need protection according to the 「Prevention of Prostitution, etc. Act」, and the ‘women’ welfare policies and the newspaper articles published in that time each constructed the discourse on women. Accordingly, women were classified hierarchically. This hierarchical categorization of women eventually included all women in the category of ‘prostitution’. In other words, classifying women hierarchically under the name of prostitution was a strategy of the state and society to control all women. The state and society defined ‘prostitution’ as a social evil and discoursed it as a social problem, but their main interest was to control all women in the name of ‘prostitution’ and use them economically.
Since this study conducted a discourse analysis limited to the period of the 1960s and 1970s, it has a limitation that it cannot examine the current situation of how the recent policies and published news on sex worker are creating the image of women. However, when looking at the discourse about women in the 1960s, this paper reveals that the hierarchical classification of women is a control strategy of the state and society. In addition, it is possible to critically examine how the welfare system responded to the discourse formed in society at that time and classified the subjects.