Evolving Conceptions of Gender in South Korea

[Midori Sanchez]

According to Professor Jung-Kim, Korean women were able to be more independent from their husbands. When it came to names, I learned that Korean women didn’t need a husband to carry on the family name whereas in Japanese culture that is not the case. In my own family, our “Miyata” name was able to be continued because the husband of the daughter of my great grandfather agreed to take on the name. However, it has not been “truly” able to be passed down in the fourth generation (including the generation that came from Japan to the United States) because my relatives have all girls. 

 

I teach To Kill a Mockingbird and often Scout, the young daughter of Atticus, is often told by her neighbor that she is not ladylike when she is not wearing a dress and even calls her “ugly”. I would like students to think about the expectations for women in the United States during the 1930s and how that has changed over time but also analyze examples of women around the world who have been suppressed or encouraged for only certain activities. Additionally, I would like them to look at cultures such as in Korea where there were women that had more expectations than cooking and cleaning but engagements in management, cottage industries, farming.