ABSTRACT
Sociocultural factors effectively constrain women from developing their human potential as independent, able social beings in the public sphere. The gender gap in political life is a direct consequence of the traditional gender-role system, which has restricted women to the domestic sphere. The absence of widows succession to political positions of their deceased husbands in Korean political history reflects at least two aspects of the traditional Korean social structure. In Korea, where women's lives were once traditionally confined within the walls of their houses, modernization has provided unprecedented opportunities for women to participate in the public sphere. The contradictions between the democratic and Confucian ideologies concerning gender roles were manifest in the campaign experiences of women legislators.
