ABSTRACT
Women are essential to the growth of an increasingly industrialized, economically viable, and democratic Korea. It had a competitive edge in the recent Asian economic miracle of the 1980s and 1990s, in which East and Southeast Asia achieved a record level of economic growth, made possible only because of the cheap labor of women. This is particularly true in manufacturing where women accounted for 98.3% of workers (in 1994). Their low wages and long hours allowed the country to keep production high and contain costs in the global export market (Lee, 1994). South Korea’s exportoriented path to economic development has exacerbated gender wage inequalities since future growth depends on the continued exploitation of women’s labor. This exploitation is made possible by a dual wage system that pays women as little as half that of men in the same industries, as well as a clustering of women into specific female-identified jobs.
