Assignment2

South Korean Family Structure: Role of Wife

Fang Hong

New York University

Abstract

This paper focuses on the current family structure of South Korea and the main factors that contribute to its structure. It introduces the woman's role in a South Korean family and explains the kind of qualities a woman should posses to be a good wife as well as their impact on the mental health of women. In addition, it analyses the origins of these qualities by using a ecological system analysis, such as patriarchy, Confucianism, social support network, witnessing parents and school education.

Keywords: South Korean culture; family structure; good wife; mental health

South Korean Family Structure: Role of Wife

1, Cultural Background

The family is considered the basic component of South Korean society, and hence it exerts perpetual influence on the development of economy and culture of the country. Simultaneausly, the general cultural background also works towards the formation as well as bringing change to this family structure.

South Korean families are generally traditionally oriented. Even though, South Korean society is largely influenced by western culture, it still maintains many traditional norms, festivals and ceremonies that are considered the symbols of South Korean culture and make every South Korean people proud of their country. The family structure is an extended one and it stresses upon the importance of harmony, collaboration and sharing among the social network of the family members.

Historically, Confucianism has played a key role in defining the moral of people as well as creating the order within this family structure. It was chosen as the national orthodox teaching in Chosen dynasty in 1392(Berthrong & Berthrong, 2009, p.169). It made a distinction between woman's inner or domestic sphere(ying) and the man's outer or public sphere(yang), and emphasized the subordination of the inner sphere to the outer sphere( Kim, 1993, p.70). Woman's lives were characterized by "the role of the three-fold obedience (samjony childo)-"obedience to the father in childhood, to the husband during marriage, and to the son in old age"(Y.Kim, p.44) Such Confucianism teachings put women in subordinate role in a family. However, after World War II, South Korean experienced rapid economic development, during

which the western culture began immersing local South Korean culture. Increasingly, people began to subscribe to the ideas of western culture which encouraged individualism, chasing a better life, creative thinking and science. These new motivations for life pushed Confucianism ideas to the back, and emerged a new structure of the family. Today, more wives are able to enjoy equality in their marriage, pursue their dream and free themselves from the patriarchal influences of the past. 2,Definition of A Good Wife

As a patriarchial society, based on Confucianism principles, South Korean society was organized according to two sets of principles: first is that males shall dominate females; second, elders shall dominate the young( Kim, 1993, p.71). And though, in current Korean society, people no longer follow these two principles, wives are still expected to support their husbands' career and set husbands as the center of their families. Loyalty and respect to family is highly valued virtues for women. Typically, women will quite their jobs if they are going to marry soon. The reason is simple, in South Korea, people believe it is the man who is financially responsible for the family and any husband who wants his wife to work outside is not really a man. This norm makes it very difficult for poor women who want to work outside the home to support their families, but do not want to bring disgrace on their husbands.

How could wives support their husbands' career? One critical skill is effectively manipulating other men through their skills and strong personalities to make it possible for their husbands to acquire more political power and greater control over economic resources.(Park 1985). By managing home finance and being a key decision

maker family matters can a wife support male prestige as well as guarantee the presperity of the family. For example, in upper-middle class families, wives often do administrative work from home, help out during labor shortages and manage their husbands' second businesses( Kim, 1993). Some stay at home wives also engage in lucrative informal economic activities such as private money-lending, stock investment, land or housing speculation.In this way, they contribute to the family status by spending their earnings on items of status such as better models of cars, brand-name clothes, and imported furniture(Kim, M-h, 1992). In addition, a woman's educational background is also viewed as an important individual attribute for the family. There is a key distinction, it is not for their potential wage earning capability or independence, but for the social honor they bring to the man and the increased social status they lend to the family. That is why most South Korean parents are so eager to send their daughters to high quality and competitive school. They want their daughter to be well-educated and knowledgable, so that they can help their daughters in finding good husbands.

Traditionally, a good South Korean wife is responsible for all the housework and is expected to play the main role in educating children. This is a great responsibility as South Korean mothers often are the ones who monitor their children's homework, extra tutoring and attend all the parent-teacher meeting. While speaking with my South Korean friends about this topic, they all seemed to agree that after they got married, it was quite acceptable and reasonable for wives to do most of the housework. It was they believed that man's work was intense and should not be

interrupted while woman's housework was much more flexible. They emphasized that the home was a wife's space and her work should be separated from her husband's work.

The second, and another important aspect of a wife's responsibility is the education of her children. It is always mother's duty to take care of child's school issues. A good wife is obliged to make sure of the success of her children in school. Fathers are not usually in charge of child's daily homework and school involvement. However, when children face difficulties at school, such as fighting other students, fathers will stand out to protect or educate their children.

The third definition of a good wife is successful maintaining a harmonious relationship with relatives, especially her parents-in-law. Among all her husband relatives, her husband's parents are the most important relations to whom wives should show their respect and reverence. They are supposed to treat their

parents-in-law as their own parents. Recognition and rewards are bestowed on the women who take exceptional care of their parents-in-law. A wife who can successfully build a good relationship with her parents-in-law has a better chance of becoming powerful members of the family. To facilitate this harmonious relationship and to reap its rewards, women will frequently visit them, talk to them and discuss family issues or figure out ways to resolve family difficulties together. As a family financial manager, wives recognize the importance to set aside some money for her parents- in- law, even though they may currently not want the money. This small spend is a strong symbol to indicate that their children are respectful and caring

towards.

3, Reason: Ecological System Analysis

Micro-system: wittnessing parent; school education

Bronfenbrenner(1979,1986,1994) describes the micro-system as a pattern of activities, social roles and interpersonal relations experienced by the individual in a given setting. For the South Korean family, and the role of wife, these roles are in line with Confucian principles and methods. These roles are conveyed and accepted by people in many ways. Education plays a vital role in finishing this task. A lot of textbooks inform girls about what it means to be a good girl, what kind of women are highly valued and what kind of characters qualify a woman to be a good wife. These ideas are ingrained in both girls and boys since elementary school. This transmission of ideas becomes even more gender specific because in South Korea, single-gender education is still considered the best way to teach children and dominates the current

Korean education system. It is because people think the differences between boys and girls should best be accentuated by separating their instruction and learning environment by gender. Under this single-sex settings, gender expectation are easily and more precisely transmitted to boys and girls.

The second facet in the definition of good wife in South Korea is by living witnessing a good and well adjusted life. It is believed that children develop into good people because they are raised well. Social learning theory tells us that individuals learn by observing and modeling( Bandura, 1997; Mihalic & Elliott, 1997). What children observe at home has a significant impact on what they consider acceptable or effective behaviors in later year. A woman can learn to be a good wife by observing her own parents' marriage and her mother's role as a wife. She watches how her mother handles everyday housework, balances social relationships and listens to her mothers and grand mother's advices about how to be am effective and helpful wife. Gradually, she gets a good command on those skills as well as taking head of the advice she received and incorporating it in her personal philosophy.

Meso-system: Social Support Network

A meso-system is composed of interrelationships between two or more

micro-system in which the individual is situated( Kim,1993,p.74 ). Experiences in one micro-level system or experiences involving a direct interaction, such as with relatives or workplace, may influence another micro-level system, such as the

home( Kim,1993,p.74 ). On a social level, marriage is a process where individual attributes and family backgrounds of partners are negotiated in order to determine and

maintain the social status of the future family that the partners form together. Many women are practical and calculating in selecting their marriage partners and consider individual attributes of the man such as educational and family background, occupational status and social network as vital factors in the decision on whether to marry the man or not. After marriage, women emulate all the characteristics that define a good wife so that they can progress economically and socially. In other words, conform to the ideal, good wife roles. If a woman refuses to do so, she is isolated not just from her family and extended relatives but also loose the advantageous position to engage in lucrative informal economic activities that would have contributed to maintain the family and more important status.

③Macro-system: Patriarchy; Confucianism

The macro-system level has been referred to as a cultural "blueprint" that may determine the social structures and activities in the immediate system levels(Hong, Kim, Yoshihama & Byoun, 2010). Among all the macro-level factors that define a good wife, patriarchy and Confucianism are the key ones in South Korea.

Pimarily, patriarchy exerts a long-lasting influence on the South Korean family structure. The South Korean family structure has been characterized, to a large extent, by patrilocal, patriarhial and patrilineal familism. South Korean women have traditionally been consigned to an inferior status in society and denied of the same economic and political opportunities as men since the Josen Dynasty(1392-1910) (Hong, Kim, Yoshihama & Byoun, 2010). Current society norm, customs, state laws and religious institutions also strengthen and legitimized the man dominance over

woman in the home; and so wives hold status not much higher than that of their children(Hand, n.d). As the center of the family, men are entitled the authority to control all members of their families for the purpose of maintianing harmony and social order. Patriarchal ideology is also disseminated and perpetuated in several macro-system implements, such as the media.

The second factor in macro-system level is Confucianism. Confucianism, in adjunction with Buddihism, are the key foundation that have shaped Korean people's way of thinking. Berthrong and Berthrong stated:" Confucianism was a whole way of life. It was an ideology; is was rituals and social customs; it was an education curriculum; it did have spiritual dimensions; it did have spiritual dimensions;it did have strong philosophic opinion."(p.9) Woman's role in society under the influence of Confucianism was obedience in all kinds of relationship. In addition, Confucianism also sets forth the virtues of five different relationships in order to maintain harmony in life--the right relationship between father and son, between elder and young, and between friends.(Y.Kim.1976, p.53). All of those principles and ideas of Confucianism, which have been indoctrinated into South Korean culture and had a dominating influence on people's views of the nature or the pattern of various societal relationship, have solidified the persistent inequality in the relationship between men and women.

④Impacts on wives

The consequences of wife role in Korean can be divided into two sides: positive ones and negative ones. Among all the negatives consequences, lack of the

development of the self, low self-esteem and a pervasive sense of shame are the main ones. Most housewives dedicate their whole lives in taking care of their husbands and children. They are not encouraged to do self-reflection or chase their own dreams since most of the time they are busy concerning all the family issues such as child bearing, houseworks and financial managing. In most cases, their subordinate position contributes to their low self-esteem and sense of shame. Cultural inclinations to keep the family in harmony and peace dictate that the anger and rage of Korean women must be suppressed. This generalized oppression of married women has long been the norm in the South Korean sociocultural context(Park, Kim, Schuarts-Barcott, &Kim, 2002). For example, wife battering is a serious social problem in South Korean which can be considered as a important fact that influences woman's mental and emotional well-being. According to the Ministry of Gender Equality, who conducted the first national survey of wife battering in South Korean in 2004, 44.6% of total households had been affected by physical violence during the preceding year and that 15.7% of women in these household were victimized repeatedly during the subsequent

year(Byun, 2007). However, most of them chosen keeping silence since they do not want to be embrassed in front of their friends or relatives(Hong, Kim, Yoshihama & Byoun, 2010). For most women, working for the families was directly related to their self-esteem and postponed gratification.

However, looking at the bright side of those positive consequences, many Korean wives are very cooperative, friendly and can be quite adamant and fortitudinous when their families fall into crisis since wives take the responsibilites to

keep the harmony within the families and with other relatives. It trains them to be conversant in working with family members. For example, no matter who has a problem in family, wives will discuss with other people and figure it out together.

On the other side, with the development of South Korean economy, especially after world war II, western ethics gradually immerse into local tradition collectivism culture which not only affects the family structure of South Korean, but also exerts a positive influence on woman's role. Confucianism ethics lost the cause of its historical familial continuity and allow new values and motivations(Yim.1966). Patriarchal familism has been constantly shattered by the revolt of women awakened to the values and ethics of western individualism culture, such as the emancipation of women from home and vitalizing the sense of human equality(Yim.1966). In addition, because of the economic change, women began to work in South Korean factories in large numbers with the advent of export-led industrialization in the 1960s and

1970s(Kim, 1996). Woman's traditional work has decreased, such as childrearing and housework since more and more families have fewer children and the production of commodities takes place within the capitalist labor process.

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