노동신문 사·논설을 통해서 본 북한 여성담론과 여성정책의 변화

Abstract

The Rodong Sinmun’s editorial is an effective material to explore the North Korean leadership’s official female discourse and women policy at any given moment. According to analyses of the ‘Rodong Sinmun’s editorial on International Women’s Day from 1950 until present day, the North Korean government’s discourse on women was initially one orientated towards women stepping out of the confinement of the home and working in the social sphere society. But the direction has gradually changed to one emphasizing the traditional model woman. The authorities’ policies for women originally ensured national conditions enabling the entry of women in public affairs and the promulgation of gender equality; they developed the expansion of the service sector and even the production of home appliances to liberate women from the burden of household work. But since the mid-1970s, while some of these policies were maintained, others were drawn back. The primary cause for a retreat in North Korea’s women policy was a political one; since the 1950s to the first half of the 1960s, North Korea was under the political influence of the Soviet Union, but after the establishment of the North Korean leadership system, the leader’s standpoint towards women was subsequently translated into state policy.