Changing of gender roles in Korea

A long time ago, Korea was very poor and the majority of Koreans worked in the agriculture industry. Korea was an agricultural society. Due to the poverty there was high child mortality. Agriculture needed many workers, so traditionally the Korean family was big, with normally 10 people over 70 years ago. Their work was separated by gender. For example, sons worked in the fields with their fathers and daughters helped their mothers or took care of young siblings at home. I think that the preference for boys started from this period.

Family sizes changed after the Korean war(1950-1953), decreasing to 5 or 6 people. The number of workers decreased in the agriculture business and Korea was modernized after the war, but the gender roles continued. At that time almost all women did not go to school, they only graduated from elementary school. Continuing the development, most Koreans worked in industrial businesses and made lots of money, and Korea became a rich country.

While Korea was developing, many people could be educated to a higher level than before, and many parents gave the same chance for education to their daughters as their sons. From the late 70s, many women studied at university. However, almost all women became house-wives after marriage. Furthermore, many people could study in foreign countries. Many people needed higher-level education after Korea became a wealthy country.

Almost all parents wanted their children to be smart and rich, so they spent lots of money on education for their children. As a result, many women have a job after finishing their study and do not resign from their jobs after marriage. After that nowadays young women do not want to have babies, so nowadays the Korean family consists of 3 or 4 people. They have spent more money than their parents, because, they can not look after their kids. Unfortunately, many Korean children spend lots of time in private academies after school instead of in playgrounds with friends.

In conclusion, traditional gender roles were broken in Korea. Many women were well-educated and worked well in the company. Nowadays the number of families where the woman earns money and man works in the home is slightly increasing. However, my personal opinion is that this is not a positive development. Women can work well, but women can care for their family much better than men and men can work better in bad conditions than women.

Kay