I. Introduction
South Korea (the Republic of Korea) since the 1960s went through two major social
transformations, economic globalization and democratization, which affected women’s
lives immensely in education, employment, political participation (e.g., voting, running for
public offices, NGO activism, etc.), as well as their views of marriage and reproduction.
Women’s educational attainment in South Korea has expanded remarkably both in terms
of number of enrollments and the advancement rate to higher educational levels,
outperforming that of men: Between 1980 and 2000, the average years of schooling for
women rose from 6.6 years to 9.8 years whereas that of men rose from 8.7 years to 10.2
years; the percentage of women who attained college and university education and above
also marked a 7.5 times increase, rising from 2.4% (1975) to 18% (2000) whereas men
experienced a modest 3.3 times increase (from 9.5% to 31%). (KWDI 2001-a: 106) In
employment, the initial surge of women’s employment took place in the 1960s when the
government aggressively launched industrialization plans, and henceforth there has been
positive linear progress in women’s employment. The labor force participation rate of
women of fifteen years old and above steadily increased with minor fluctuations so that
nearly half of women now work outside the home: 36.3% (1963); 40.8% (1980); 47%
(1990), 48.3% (2000) & 47.9% (2002). Of the economically active population, women
accounted for 41.3% in 2000. (KNSO 2001, p. 141-150 & KWDI, 2000 Statistical
Yearbook on Women, pp. 166-167)
Despite these phenomenal improvements in women’s opportunities in higher
education and employment, there is a weak linkage between women’s education and
women’s economic status in South Korea. (Yoon, Bang-Soon 1998-a & 1998-b) South
Korea’s industrialization and democratic opening created “strategic sites” of women’s
political involvement and expanded women’s social activism in civil society. (Yoon, Bang-
Soon L. 2001-a) As yet, the pattern of women’s political participation reveals that
women’s political space in South Korea has been largely confined to areas outside of
formal political institutions, or the extra-political arena. (Yoon, Bang-Soon L. 2001-a)
Women’s marginal representation in formal political institutions is chronically persistent
regardless of improved economic and educational opportunities for women in South Korea.
Nor has South Korea’s successful democratic opening of the 1980s had significant impact
on the expansion of women’s opportunities for political representation.
Women remain
invisible in South Korea’s political map. Women’s representation in the formal
Convention