ABSTRACT
Women’smovements inKorea, likewomen’smovements in otherAsian countries, started as a result of interaction with the West, and political organizations concerned with women’s issues arose during Korea’s first effort to modernize in the late 1800s. Over the past hundred years, women’s movements have ebbed and flowed during periods of Japanese colonial rule, civil war, military dictatorship, and democratization, and developed in conjunction with political movements that focused on broader issues affecting the whole society. Women’s movements in Korea have been arenas where groups with varied ideological backgrounds have struggled to advance women’s interests according to their differing interpretations of those interests. Thus, the history of women’s movements has been ‘fraught with tension, antagonism, competition, and cooperation’ among different groups revolving around the issues of gender, class and nation (Cho 1996: 5; see also Lee 1996; Sim 1985; Yi 1994).
