Confucianism culture: Older Women in Korean society

By continuing for the previous post about elderly females in Korean family, this post is about the older women's position in society of Confucianism culture.

It is true that elderly women's position in most cultures has not been same as 

male old people. Most old women are regarded as minorities in society.

Confucianism affects into women's life- especially older women- not only in

households but also in working environment. The Confucianism of Korean society actually made older women suffer double hardness by giving them hard jobs and discrimination in work field such as lower wages than men, even though with the same or more amount of working. The prevalent Confucianism made women be forced to harshly work without being much paid. According to the Seoung-Kyung Kim in his book "Class Struggle or Family Struggle?", during the industrialization of Korean society, government actually made the notion of 'dutiful daughter' in factory. (Kim, 1997) Kim also explains the meaning of 'dutiful' in his book that "to be dutiful, a daughter should cheerfully accept her low social status and devote herself to the family that is about to expel her." (Kim 1997, 8) The designed low social status, which is from traditional Confucianism culture, made women be treated harshly in working field. For example, a Korean woman's interview (Su-hyon) in Kim's book shows the working class women's typical thoughts about working in factory. Su-hyon had worked in a shoe factory for seven years, married for a year and a half and had a baby daughter. In her interview, she said "I worked for a long time. My husband wants me to stay home too, so why should I go back to a miserable factory job at a sewing machine?" (Kim 1997, 81) 

Even though there have been many changes in the hierarchy between men and women, the older people - especially older males- still have the strong concepts of the inequality toward older women. Even in current society, most families - including my family- do the ancestor worship male descendants first and then female descendants perform the ceremony. Not only this, all female cook the food for ceremony while male family members are talking or watching televisions. This tradition is getting weak by going down the generations but sex discrimination based on the Confucianism is still prevalent at current older populations in family and in society. 

* Reference

      Kim, Seoung-kyung 1997 Class Struggle or Family Struggle?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Elderly Women as minority in family structure of Confucianism culture

The status of women in society has been regarded as minority in many different cultures. For example, in the gerontology, many scholars point out the inequality of women as a role of caregiver for elderly whether it is paid or unpaid. (Olson 2001, 231) However, in Korean society with Confucianism concept, the older women status in family looks worse than other older women in different cultures. 


At previous two posts, I focus on the positive aspect of Confucianism for the aging population. However, some of the characteristic of Confucianism are negative (or unfair) to female elderly, especially in Korean society. 




Even though Confucianism stresses that respecting elderly is important duty for younger generation, it is mostly focused on male elderly especially in traditional society. Now there are much less sex-discrimination in current society, compare to the traditional society, but there has been existed the strong hierarchy between male and female in the Confucianism culture society.


Older women in family have to serve their husband and husband's family members including their own children. All the household works and caregiving jobs are for women. From traditional Korean society, peripheral status of female in husband’s family makes women more rely on their children. In the male dominant society, called Patrilineage society, women always remain outside of the family group.  Korean family group continues by male descendants who are carrying surname to next generations. Married female, otherwise, is not considered as a full-member of the patrilineal group. The marriage for Korean women means joining other family group rather than individual romance. Women who married out to husband’s group have different surname of the group, and they are excluded from important family activity. For example, women were usually not allowed to joining Korean funeral procession. In “Ancestor Worship and Korean Society,” Roger L. Janelli maintains that “A woman …  has come from outside the lineage in the process of marriage, and is therefore a person of divided loyalties.” (Janelli 1982: 65)


Also, during the industrialization, many women who had been in household came out to urban area to work at factory for earning incomes to bring themselves up to the higher level of society. For working class women as women in traditional society, however, their position in family was not changed. They had a dual works in factory and household. Confucianism culture requires women to work hard in household such as serving family members and upbringing children. In “Class Struggle or Family Struggle?”, Seoung-kyung Kim argues about “it was what their upbringing led them to expect of a proper adult woman, and it was a role that contained enough status responsibility to be personally satisfying. Motherhood is culturally expected and internalized as a core value by most South Korean woman, regardless of social class.” (Kim 1997: 168) 


As Korean females get older, unlike the male elderly, they do not have the same respects as males from younger generations. Korean women can not participate into many traditional ceremony as men. The hierarchy between men and women are exist even when they get older. It is the double jeopardy for Korean old women in their family.

*  Reference 

     Janelli, Roger L. 1982. Ancestor Worship and Korean Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press

     Kim, Seoung-kyung 1997 Class Struggle or Family Struggle?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
     Laura Katz Olson (2001), Age Through Ethnic Lenses: Caring for Elderly in a Multicultural Society. MA, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC.