해방 후 1950년대까지의 여성관련 법제화와 축첩제 폐지운동

Abstract

This study focuses on the women’s objection to concubine, an issue from the 1920s, and the discourse on formulation a new law against it after liberation in Korea. After common-law marriage was changed to civil marriage, the status of wife and concubine became unstable. In the name of love, marriage through free love and divorce became crucial. Therefore, stress was gradually laid upon partners remaining chaste, and doing so was considered an indicator to measure gender equality. To keep a concubine in addition to a wife was considered to violate the institution of marriage and was considered a feudal or corrupt practice from a man. In this situation, women pushed two agendas after liberation. The first was for the new constitution to prescribe the“chastity of marriage” and to prohibit keeping a concubine. The second was to establish legislation for banning men who already had a concubine from working as a government employee. Article 20 on the “chastity of marriage” was accepted without much resistance; however, the potential prohibition on government employees faced fierce objections. This may have been because this prohibition would result in individual and familial problems for men. As a result, this prohibition was rejected by a vote of 83 against to 53. Shortly after this vote was defeated, women began demonstrating in its favor, and women’s organizations forced President Lee to legislate for the abolition of concubine. As the Korean war broke out immediately after this period, women’s movement against concubines cooled down, and objections and criticisms subsided owing to the strong anticommunist sentiment after the war. Although many punishments were imposed for keeping a concubine, they were very light and applied only sparingly. They seemed no more than a formality to soothe the public opinion. Furthermore, expressions like democracy, gender equality, and antidiscrimination that women had demanded and that were prescribed under the Constitution were not included in the new criminal law and civil law. At this time, lawmakers were given to conservative thinking and to maintaining old customs in society. Whereas women considered concubines to be a public problem linked to licensed prostitution and human trafficking, men considered it a private problem. These attitudes resulted in society being divided sexually. As long as there existed a division between “good” and “bad” women, women remained trapped in the image imposed by society. Women’s status was not dealt with in the same manner as that of men in the discourse and movement, and the demand of gender equality that women hoped would be enshrined in the Constitution emerged through the reform in family law, thus ultimately gaining acceptance in the areas of politics, society, economy, and culture.