한국의 가계계승에서 여성의 지위－식민지기 女性戶主를 중심으로－

Abstract

In this article, I have surveyed women’s position of succession in the family from the Josun Dynasty to the Colonial Korea diachronically. In Kyungkukdaejun(經國大典), it was stipulated that men succeeded as the head of family(戶主), but women could also albeit temporarily. In family registers which were managed by the state, the principle was to organize family registers focused on men, for they serviced as soldiers and were burdened with taxes, so men became a head of family. Nevertheless women as the head of family existed in books of Family Registers in the late Josun Dynasty. But as Neo-Confucian Ideology was proliferated in Josun society, the number of women as the head of family were diminished. The Regulation of Census(戶口調査規則) in 1896 and the Decree of Family Register(民籍法) in 1909 were legislated by reflecting upon the reality of family succession and the composition of the heads of family in the late Josun Dynasty. Specially in the Decree of Family Register, family registers were made based on men and this tendency continued in the period of colonial Korea. The Korean Law of Family Register in 1960 was a legacy of colonial experiences. In the colonial society women could become the head of family temporarily. This is not different from the late Josun Dynasty. But there was a big difference between the late Josun society and the colonial society. In the late Josun society, women were free and so she, especially widows, had no restriction in marrying. But in the colonial society women were not so, and she needed permission from the heads of family of her father and her father in law. Moreover a widow could hardly remarry because she had to succeed as the head of family. The restriction was only de facto in the late Josun society, but it was strongly de jure in the colonial society. That is the most important point.