남북한 여성 생활문화의 이해- 집안일과 육아를 중심으로 -

Abstract

This study aims at the comparative research of the South and North Korean women's housework and child rearing practices in order to reveal its distinctive characteristics of each society. For this, oral histories of 16 women from the South and North were collected and analyzed. The South and North have respectively developed different political and economic systems after liberation from colonialism in 1945. Each political system has consequently structured the culture of everyday life of women. However, the two societies also shared the same cultural traditions before liberation. It means that the traditional culture has run down through the South and North Korean women's everyday life. Women of the South and the North have had common norms and behaviors under the system of patriarchical family and the ideology of familism. As a result, the gendered division of labor have deeply rooted in everyday life of women in both societies. Regardless women with or without jobs, they are expected to work in and out of house in the name of 'housework' so called 'jib an il' and be super-mothers. In the meantime, there is a big difference between the two societies regarding child rearing practices. While women in the South should put their whole efforts into child raising and education following the social norms and discourses, women in the North receive the government's active involvement in child rearing. This study analyzes the differences and similarities of housework and child rearing practices imposed on women who live in different political systems at present and share the same cultural traditions in the past.