ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that there is a dramatic difference between the rhetoric and the reality of gender equality in Korea. The rapid growth of the Korean economy in the last three decades has altered the Korean family structure in significant ways, nonetheless, adherence to Confucian family values remains strong. Marriage remains a major concern for the parents of the young women and men involved— it represents an opportunity to improve the status of the family and is far more than simply a manifestation of a young couple’s mutual affection. Korea’s economy has grown dramatically in the last 30 years and, until the collapse of the stock market and the currency in 1998, Korea was regarded as an ‘economic miracle’ and given the tag of ‘a tiger economy’. Koreans have continued to regard women’s participation in the paid labour force as a temporary condition that will cease once they assume the roles of wives and mothers on marriage.
