『여자고등조선어독본』을 통해 본 여성상

Abstract

This paper examines what qualities Korean women were forced to acquire through education during the Japanese colonical in Korea, centering on close reading of on Highschool Chosun-uh-dokbon for Women. And the ‘Korean education low(chosun-gyoyuklyung)’. This research also includes comparing korean education low for men and women respectively to prove the significance of the study. It is clearly shown in the text of Highschool Chosun-uh-dokbon for Women what Japanese tried to achieve on Korean women by education. First, vanity, which should be abolished most of all, is put in the very first part of the text, followed by domestic science, which made women have the way of thinking based on Japanese modern culture and science. Duty of physical education and aesthetic taste was assigned for women in the name of cultivating the mind and the body that the women in that era could naturally become accustomed to Japanese culture by learning Japanese traditional songs. Lastly, great importance was attached on the value of establishing ‘wise mother’ and ‘devoted mother’. Women had to be the one who should restore the economic state of the family and who would like to participate in the warring situation for maintaining the stability of Imperialism. During the era, the Government-General of Chosun’s educational policy for women achieved duplicity by accepting contradicting values of ‘working women’ and ‘women of Confucian morality’.