ABSTRACT
What are the actual conditions of women’s transnational lives? Do women fi nd their transnational lives progressive or emancipatory? The motivations of Korean women to move abroad are related to the gendered socioeconomic and cultural conditions of society that persist and continue to structure labor market outcomes and lifestyles; particularly, the attainment of higher education does not necessarily increase Korean women’s work opportunities and the subsequent role of work in developing a new mode of identity formation-individualization (for details, see Chapter 3). Women expect a possibility for self-exploration and repositioning in transnational connections and momentary diversion. Yet, simultaneously, the culturally situated nature of narratives reveals what is still normative in Korea-marriage-representing a microcosm of societal rules.
