South Korea

Citation:

Lee, Aie‐Rie, and Kerry Chávez. 2020. “Are Women More Averse to Corruption than Men? The Case of South Korea.” Social Science Quarterly 101 (2): 473–89.

Authors: Aie-Rie Lee, Kerry Chavez

Abstract:

Objectives: Previous research asserts that women are less prone to corruption than men. It is not without contestation, leading to a complex corpus with mixed findings suggesting that perceptions might be context‐specific. This study investigates whether, how, and under or through what conditions gender impacts individual perceptions of corruption in South Korea, a case exemplifying "Asian exceptionalism."

Methods: Employing the World Values Survey and statistical regression techniques, we leverage a quasi‐experiment analyzing individual attitudes across all regime types in South Korea's recent history.

Results: Examining three types of corruption—state benefit fraud, tax evasion, and bribe‐taking—we find no significant differences until Korea democratizes, when we observe a surprising increase in the gap between perspectives.

Conclusions: Women's differential tolerance is mixed across types of corruption, implying that corruption is not a homogenous concept and that perceptions are conditioned by individual opportunities and constraints.

Topics: Corruption, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Governance Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 2020

Citation:

Han, Jongwoo, and L. H. M Ling. 1998. “Authoritarianism in the Hypermasculinized State: Hybridity, Patriarchy, and Capitalism in Korea.” International Studies Quarterly 42 (1): 53–78.

Authors: Jongwoo Han, L. H. M Ling

Abstract:

Authoritarianism in East Asia's capitalist developmental state (CDS) is highly gendered. A hybrid product of Western masculinist capitalism and Confucian parental governance, CDS authoritarianism takes on a hypermasculinized developmentalism that assumes all the rights and privileges of classical Confucian patriarchy for the state while assigning to society the characteristics of classical Confucian womanhood: diligence, discipline, and deference. Society subsequently bears the burden of economic development without equal access to political representation or voice. Women in the CDS now face three tiers of patriarchal authority and exploitation: family, state, and economy. Nevertheless, new opportunities for democratization may arise even in the hypermasculinized state. We suggest: (1) em- phasizing substantive, notjust procedural, democratization, (2) exercising a maternalized discourse of dissent, and (3) applying hybrid strategies of social mobilization across states, societies, cultures, and movements. South Korea during the 1960s-1970s serves as our case study.

Topics: Economies, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Governance, Political Economies Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 1998

Citation:

Kim, Seung-kyung, and Kyounghee Kim. 2011. “Gender Mainstreaming and the Institutionalization of the Women’s Movement in South Korea.” Women’s Studies International Forum 34 (5): 390–400. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2011.05.004.

Authors: Seung-kyung Kim, Kyounghee Kim

Abstract:

This article examines the relationship between the women's movement and the government over the two women-friendly administrations in South Korea (1997–2007), a period marked by flourishing civil society activism and participatory democracy. As the Korean government transformed from a military dictatorship to a participatory democracy, the women's movement became increasingly involved in policy making and formulating legal changes. By the end of 2007, the Korean government had established or rewritten numerous far-reaching laws in order to rectify gender inequality. However, many feminist activists and scholars are asking whether the very success of Korean gender policy resulted in the institutionalization and demobilization of the women's movement. This study will focus on the dynamics of cooperation, tension, and conflict between feminist organizations and formal politics in order to analyze the trajectory of institutionalization during the ten-year period of women-friendly administrations.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Discourses, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 2011

Citation:

Herr, Ranjoo Seodu. 2015. “Can Transnational Feminist Solidarity Accommodate Nationalism? Reflections from the Case Study of Korean ‘Comfort Women.’” Hypatia 31 (1): 41–57.

Author: Ranjoo Seodu Herr

Abstract:

This article aims to refute the “incompatibility thesis” that nationalism is incompatible with transnational feminist solidarity, as it fosters exclusionary practices, xenophobia, and racism among feminists with conflicting nationalist aspirations. I examine the plausibility of the incompatibility thesis by focusing on the controversy regarding just reparation for SecondWorld War “comfort women,” which is still unresolved. The Korean Council at the center ofthis controversy, which advocates for the rights of Korean former comfort women, has been criticized for its strident nationalism and held responsible for the stalemate. Consequently, the case of comfort women has been thought to exemplify the incompatibility thesis. I argue against this common feminist perception in three ways: first, those who subscribe to the incom-patibility thesis have misinterpreted facts surrounding the issue; second, the Korean Council’s nationalism is a version of “polycentric nationalism,” which avoids the problems of essentialist nationalism at the center of feminist concerns; and, third, transnational feminist solidarity is predicated on the idea of oppressed/marginalized women’s epistemic privilege and enjoins that feminists respect oppressed/marginalized women’s epistemic privilege. To the extent that oppressed/marginalized women’s voices are expressed in nationalist terms, I argue that feminists committed to transnational feminist solidarity must accommodate their nationalism.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Nationalism, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2015

Relevant Links: Can Transnational Feminist Solidarity Accommodate Nationalism? Reflections from the Case Study of Korean “Comfort Women”

Citation:

Author: Nishioka Tsutomu

Topics: Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Boys, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Human Security, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Torture, Sexual Torture, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, South Korea

Year: 2007

Citation:

Author: Na Young Lee

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Security, Human Security, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea, United States of America

Year: 2007

Citation:

Moon, Katharine H. S. 2007. “Resurrecting Prostitutes and Overturning Treaties: Gender Politics in the ‘Anti-American’ Movement in South Korea.” The Journal of Asian Studies 66 (01): 129. doi:10.1017/S0021911807000046.

Author: Katherine Moon

Abstract:

Although recent expressions of “anti-Americanism” in South Korea have alarmed policy makers in Seoul and Washington and aroused fears about declining popular support for the bilateral alliance, they are understandable manifestations of civil society activism, which has grown since democratization began during the late 1980s. This paper analyzes anti-Americanism as a dynamic coalition movement accompanied by the all of internal competition, conflicts, and contradictions that characterize such movements. In the process, some actors and issues have become high priorities, whereas others have been marginalized or silenced. Professor Moon examines kijich'on (camptown) prostitution around U.S. military bases in Korea as a case study of how power conflicts within the coalition movement, which are focused on nationalism and gender, have exploited and shut out the very people who served as its initiators and early leaders.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Globalization, Sexual Violence, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 2007

Citation:

Cockburn, Cyntha. 2012. Anti-Militarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Cynthia Cockburn

Keywords: peace movements, women and peace, women, militarism, Japan

Annotation:

Contents

Acknowledgements                                                                                           x

Glossary of Acronyms                                                                                        xi

Introduction 1

1. Finding a Voice: Women at Three Moments of British Peace Activism             19
2. War Resisters and Pacifist Revolution                                                             46
3. Legitimate Disobedience: An Anti-militarist Movement in Spain                     74                    
4. Midlands City: Faiths and Philosophies Together for Palestine                        103
5. Saying No to NATO: Divergent Strategies                                                       126                                        
6. Seeing the Whole Picture: Anti-militarism in Okinawa and Japan                    152
7. A State of Peace: Movements to Reunify and Demilitarize Korea                     180
8. Guns and Bodies: Armed Conflict and Domestic Violence                                211
9. Towards a Different Common Sense                                                                231

References                                                                                                            264

Index                                                                                                                    277

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes Regions: MENA, Asia, East Asia, Middle East, Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Japan, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom

Year: 2012

Citation:

Lee, Alvin. 2010. "Assessing the Korean Military's Gay Sex Ban in the International Context." Law & Sexuality: A Review of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Legal Issues 19: 67-94.

Author: Alvin Lee

Topics: Gender, Men, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexuality Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 2010