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North Korea The Role of Women
In the Chosn Dynasty, women were expected to give birth to
and rear male heirs to assure the continuation of the family
line. Women had few opportunities to participate in the social,
economic, or political life of society. There were a few
exceptions to limitations imposed on women's roles. For example,
female shamans were called on to cure illnesses by driving away
evil spirits, to pray for rain during droughts, or to perform
divination and fortune-telling.
Few women received any formal education in traditional Korean
society. After the opening of Korea to foreign contact in the
late nineteenth century, however, Christian missionaries
established girls' schools, thus allowing young Korean females to
obtain a modern education.
The social status and roles of women were radically changed
after 1945. On July 30, 1946, authorities north of the thirtyeighth parallel passed a Sex Equality Law. The 1972 constitution
asserted that "women hold equal social status and rights with
men." The 1990 constitution stipulates that the state creates
various conditions for the advancement of women in society. In
principle, North Korea strongly supports sexual equality.
In contemporary North Korea, women are expected to fully
participate in the labor force outside the home. Apart from its
ideological commitment to the equality of the sexes, the
government views women's employment as essential because of the
country's labor shortage. No able-bodied person is spared from
the struggle to increase production and compete with the more
populous southern half of the peninsula. According to one South
Korean source, women in North Korea are supposed to devote eight
hours a day to work, eight hours to study (presumably, the study
of chuch'e and Kim Il Sungism), and eight hours to rest
and sleep. Women who have three or more children apparently are
permitted to work only six hours a day and still receive a full,
eight-hour-a-day salary.
The media showcases role models. The official newspaper
P'yongyang Times, in an August 1991 article, described the
career of Kim Hwa Suk, a woman who had graduated from compulsory
education (senior middle school), decided to work in the fields
as a regular farmer in a cooperative located in the P'yongyang
suburbs, and gradually rose to positions of responsibility as her
talents and dedication became known. After serving as leader of a
youth workteam, she attended a university. After graduating, she
became chairperson of her cooperative's management board. Kim was
also chosen as a deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly.
Despite such examples, however, it appears that women are not
fully emancipated. Sons are still preferred over daughters. Women
do most if not all of the housework, including preparing a
morning and evening meal, in addition to working outside the
home; much of the responsibility of childrearing is in the hands
of t'agaso and the school system. The majority of women
work in light industry, where they are paid less than their male
counterparts in heavy industry. In office situations, they are
likely to be engaged in secretarial and other low-echelon jobs.
Different sex roles, moreover, are probably confirmed by the
practice of separating boys and girls at both the elementary and
higher middle-school levels
(see Education
, this ch.). Some
aspects of school curricula for boys and girls also are
apparently different, with greater emphasis on physical education
for boys and on home economics for girls. In the four-year
university system, however, women majoring in medicine, biology,
and foreign languages and literature seem especially numerous.
Data as of June 1993
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