This study examines the Korean women's movement and the political strategies of feminist leaders, in the years following Korea’s independence from Japan. I analyze the women’s newspapers Buin shinbo, which was published from 1947 to 1950, and was ...
This study examines the Korean women's movement and the political strategies of feminist leaders, in the years following Korea’s independence from Japan. I analyze the women’s newspapers Buin shinbo, which was published from 1947 to 1950, and was one of the few newspapers at that time directed towards a female audience. As the articles and editorials in Buin shinbo make clear, feminist leaders viewed political participation as a sole and necessary strategy in the achievement of women’s rights. This focus on political participation outside of the domestic sphere put the women’s movement as reflected in Buin shinbo in stark contrast with the women’s enlightenment movement. The years following colonial Chosun’s liberation from Japan were dominated by both national and international conflicts, and the divisions during this unsettling period led to the Korean War. Hence, research on the women's movement during this period has been limited. Buin shinbo allows us to see the limitations placed on women during this critical liberation period and the value women leaders placed on political participation. During this period, Korean women faced social, legal, and political restrictions; the idea of women’s rights, or female suffrage, was nonexistent in Korea. Even more so, the turbulence of this period as regards the establishment of a government and the national unification surpassed the question of women’s rights and the goals of the women’s movement. Feminist leaders had to emphasize the role of women in the family while advocating for women's liberation. Emphasizing a women’s role at home had the potential to highlight the necessary and important role women played in society, thus accentuating the value women play in Korean society. In turn, such an esteemed valuation could be parlayed into an argument for women’s rights in the public sphere. However, as the female leaders of Buin shinbo express, the strategy of the women’s enlightenment campaign was not sufficient for securing women’s rights. The best way to obtain women’s rights was to participate in the National Assembly to enact laws for women. The political goals of the feminist leaders in the public sphere were the way of the women’s movement, not idealized versions of femininity.