해방과 동원 사이 －1921-1950년대 몽골 여성교육의 형성과 이중성－ = Between Liberation and Mobilization : The Formation and Duality of Mongolian Women’s Education, 1921-1950s

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines the formation and duality of Mongolian women’s education between 1921 and the 1950s, a period marked by dramatic transformation from complete exclusion to widespread literacy. In 1921, Mongolian women had virtually no access to formal education; by 1950, female professors taught at universities and female doctors practiced medicine. This research analyzes how external socialist revolution combined with women’s internal educational aspirations to create extraordinary change within just thirty years.
The study reveals three critical phases. First, the 1921 People’s Revolution established legal equality in education, yet practical barriers remained formidable due to nomadic spatial dispersion, family economic constraints, and deep-rooted gender norms. Second, the “Red Ger(Ulaan Ger)” mobile schools from 1929-1940 represented an innovative fusion of nomadic tradition and socialist education, serving simultaneously as spaces of liberation and mechanisms of state control. Third, the 1940s-1950s witnessed institutional consolidation with modern school buildings, teacher training systems, and professional women emerging in education and healthcare sectors.
This research demonstrates that Mongolian women’s education embodied a fundamental duality—liberation amid mobilization. While women gained unprecedented access to education and professional opportunities, they simultaneously became subjects of ideological indoctrination and state mobilization. Female teachers functioned as both educators and Party propagandists, while educational advancement coincided with occupational gender segregation into caregiving professions. By 1950, female teachers comprised 54.9% of the teaching force, yet women remained marginalized in decision-making positions.
The study concludes that the radical quantitative expansion of women’s education coexisted with persistent structural limitations. Legal equality declarations preceded substantive implementation by decades, and educational opportunities came bundled with state surveillance and ideological control. This historical case illuminates how women’s education can simultaneously function as an instrument of empowerment and a technology of governance.