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Working Women in Choson Korea: an Exploration of Women's Economic Activities in a Patriarchal Society Michael J Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective Volume 5 Article 3 Number 2 Voices of Korean Identity in Global Context June 2011 Working Women in Choson Korea: An Exploration of Women's Economic Activities in a Patriarchal Society Michael J. Pettid Binghamton University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jgi Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Economic History Commons, Women's History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Pettid, Michael J. (2011) "Working Women in Choson Korea: An Exploration of Women's Economic Activities in a Patriarchal Society," Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective: Vol. 5 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jgi/vol5/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 24 I Journal of Global Initiatives Working Women in Choson Korea: An Exploration ofWomen's Economic Activities in a Patriarchal Society Michael J. Pettid This paper examines the economic activities of women in Choson Korea in an attempt to uncover the realities of their lives in terms of economic contribution and support of the well-being of their households. Despite the prevailing rhetori( of the "Confucianization" of late Choson, it is the belief of this writer that such a situation probably did not apply strictly to rural society or in matters of the necessity of economic strength. Rather I will argue that the economic realities of late Choson and farm life in general valued the labor and contributions of all members of a household, and such a situation would have been ofbenefit to women. The highest value ofsuch a society was economic contribution, not necessarily adherence to Confucian standards. This study uses period records, aspects of folk practices, and other sources to demonstrate that much of what is assumed about Choson Korea in terms of women and their lives needs to be reconsideredl Introduction The preface to Kyuhap ch'ongso [Encyclopedia ofwomen's daily life] written by Yi PinghOgak (1759-1824) states that this work was intended for her daughters and daughters-in-law as a comprehensive guide to all that a woman should know for maintaining a healthy life and managing a household.2 The work is indeed a broad and all-encompassing companion to a woman's life in the late Choson period and devotes chapters to cooking, sewing and weaving, medical remedies concerning childbirth and child rearing, and managing natural forces such as spirits and unwanted ghosts. The third chapter in this work is of most concern to this paper as it discusses the management of a rural household and goes into great depth explaining when to plant various crops, when to harvest, and how to I I would like to thank Professor Hyangsoon Yi of the University of Georgia for her insightful comments and close reading of this paper that greatly helped me in creating a better paper. Additionally, I presented a working version of this paper at the Korean Women's Institute at Ewha University in July 2010 and also received much helpful feedback and suggestions from the audience. 2 Yi Pinghogak, Kyuhap ch'ongsi5 [~MJli~ Encyclopedia of women's daily life], Chong Yangwan, trans. & annot. (P'aju: Pojinjae, 2006), 2. Michael J. Pettid I25 raise livestock. The book is not written from a spectator's viewpoint either: it is clearly designed to give women the knowledge they need to successfully raise crops, vegetables, and the livestock essential to their lives. Consider the following instructions for planting and harvesting scallions, "The day for planting is the arne as that for garlic. When planting the roots, liberally spread either pig or chicken dung."3 Likewise, her instructions for planting kat (a type of leafy mustard) are equally detailed and aimed at a timely harvest and saving seed for the next year's crop: When planted in the eighth month, it can be harvested for kimjang4 and if planted in the spring the seeds can be gathered. The seeds should be spread in the sunshine and take care that there is no dew at night or it will render the seeds useless. The nne black seeds are good for planting and the yellow seeds are for eating.5 These instructions leave us with the clear impression that women, even of the upper status groups, were expected to do a considerable amount of work in gardens and around the farm, even if just in the form of supervising slaves or servants. Such a view is the starting point for this paper and my larger project. It is my contention that women were far from bystanders when it came to life in rural settings in Choson Korea. Labor was far too precious of a commodity for half of the population to Simply take leave. While women did not necessarily participate in tasks such as plowing fields, they most certainly contributed to the household economy in other means, such as planting, tending, and harvesting vegetables, tending livestock, and assisting with labor intensive tasks such as transplanting rice and weeding fields. Moreover, tasks such as weaving (kilssam) have long been regarded as a duty of women in Choson and earlier periods.6 The economic importance of cloth-used as both a means to pay taxes and as a de facto currency in the Choson period-clearly demonstrates economic participation by women. Yet, we are not commonly given the image of women as being a part of 3 Ibid., 257. 4 Kimjang is the time in the late fall when winter kimch 'i is prepared. 5 Kyuhap ch'ongs6, 255. 6 Records of women working at various weaving tasks date back to at least the Three Kingdoms period (1 st century BCE - 7th century CE) and are recorded in the Samguk yusa [=~;g* Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms]. 26 I Journal of Global Initiatives the economy of Choson, but rather as being consigned to the women's quarters in relative isolation from the outside world. Such a view only serves to perpetuate myths of women's activities, or more accurately lack of activity, in Choson and does not allow an understanding of the varied lives and important contributions made by women in past times. Economic activities seem to be not so much dictated by social status but rather by economic need. Women ofwealthy households would not participate in these activities, especially the more difficult tasks of transplanting rice plants or weeding fields, to the degree that women of poorer households would. Thus, I would argue that economic status was the prime determiner for a woman's participation in farm household labor rather than social status or adherence to Confucian dictates. It seems almost trivial to state that whatever the values of official society might have been, in farming households the most important value was a successful harvest and a surplus of goods. As I hope to demonstrate, a "good" Confucian woman could also be understood as one who contributed to the economic strength of a house. One additional point that should be emphasized before moving forward is that I will attempt to examine these women's activities in the context of the late Choson period. We cannot extend 21st century understandings of"autonomy" or "economic power" to the women of late Choson. Rather, we must examine their lives with a full acknowledgement that the dominant social system of that time was Confucianism and women lived a major portion of their lives within that sphere. While we will see that women certainly were economically productive in this time, we cannot expect that this led them to act in a manner akin to women in the present age. Instead, these women acted within the confines of the Confucian social system and pursued autonomy also in that same social system. Late Choson: Economic Turmoil and Growth The time from the early to the late Choson was a period of great change in agrarian productivity. Farming in early Choson was extensive, not intensive. Labor was at a premium and the use ofslaves to farm fields was a necessity. Early in Choson, the adoption of the kwajon-pop (rank land law) led to most lands being cultivated by small-scale landowners of freeborn status. Yet the taxes were onerous and these farmers gradually became impoverished and fell into tenant arrangements with wealthier landlords. Such a situation was worsened by relatively equal inheritance practices in the period that generally saw family lands Michael J. Pettid I27 divided equally among all children.7 A mid-15th century entry in the dynastic record indicates that approximately 30% of commoner status farmers did not have their own land (mujon chi min).8 Smaller land holdings and a heavy tax burden made farming a difficult occupation and as a result, tenant farming became common by the mid-Choson period. Along with the fractionalization of lands and an increasing prevalence of tenant farming was an overall general lack of labor. There is little doubt that all members of a farming household participated in the operation of the farm, but even with that, the difficult tasks of plowing were made all the more arduous by the lack of oxen to pull the plows. A 1431 entry in the dynastic record informs us that there was approximately one ox for every ten households.9 Even with various measures enacted by the government-such as loaning government cattle (kwanu) to farmers-the dearth of cattle was a Significant factor in.the relatively low output for most small-scale farmers.
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