ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the alternative understandings of women-dominated consumer cooperatives. It presents an overview of how the gender perspective of organization and management research has developed. The chapter examines characteristics of Korea’s consumer cooperatives and gender in cooperatives research to explore and provides the necessity of gender perspective for future cooperative research. Women’s economic and social activities decrease suddenly after marriage due to the Korean family culture, where women assume full charge of housework and childcare. Reflecting the realistic limitation of the lack of interest in women and gender, studies on cooperatives related to women and gender were also examined. Most studies treat women and gender as the same concepts, using them as a demographic variable just as age or educational level. The former regards sex and gender as stable human properties, compares the structured circumstances influencing men and women in different ways, and seeks to rectify the inequality.
