Women’s Education and Social Mobility in South Korea A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Faculty of Humanities 2013 Kyung-A Kim School of Social Sciences CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 5 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 7 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... 8 DECLARATION ............................................................................................................ 9 COPYRIGHT .................................................................................................................. 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 11 1.1 Background of the study ................................................................................... 11 1.2 Aim and objectives ............................................................................................ 12 1.3 Research questions ............................................................................................ 12 1.4 Thesis outlines ................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2 Literature Review ...................................................................................... 17 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Women in Confucianist Korea .......................................................................... 17 2.2.1 What is Confucianism? .............................................................................. 18 2.2.2 History of Korean Confucianism ............................................................... 19 2.2.3 Traditional Confucian perspective of women ............................................ 20 2.2.4 Being a woman in modern Confucian society ........................................... 23 2.3 Gender in contemporary South Korea............................................................... 25 2.3.1 The concept of gender in contemporary South Korea ............................... 25 2.3.2 Confucianism and traditional gender views in South Korea ...................... 26 2.3.3 Masculinity and femininity in South Korea ............................................... 29 2.3.4 Gender socialisation in modern Korean society ......................................... 34 2.4 Class and education ........................................................................................... 37 2.4.1 Childhood socialisation and education ....................................................... 37 2.4.2 Concept of childhood ................................................................................. 38 2.4.3 Socialisation and family ............................................................................. 40 2.4.4 Concept of class and class stratification..................................................... 41 2.4.5 Concept of education .................................................................................. 44 2.5 Gender socialisation .......................................................................................... 45 2.5.1 The emergence of gender and the effect .................................................... 46 2.5.2 Gender theory as power? ............................................................................ 49 2.5.3 Experience of gender .................................................................................. 51 2.5.4 Gender and education ................................................................................. 53 2.7 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 54 Appendix for Chapter 2 ............................................................................................. 55 Chapter 3 Data and Methods ...................................................................................... 63 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 63 3.2 Korean Labour and Income Panel Study .......................................................... 63 3.2.1 General description .................................................................................... 63 3.2.2 Core contents of KLIPS and adopted variables ......................................... 64 3.3 Variables ........................................................................................................... 65 3.3.1 Social background variables ...................................................................... 65 3.3.2 Other variables ........................................................................................... 72 3.3.3 Independent variables ................................................................................. 73 3.4 Statistical methods used for analysis................................................................. 76 2 3.4.1 Descriptive analysis ................................................................................... 76 3.4.2 Disparity ratios and Odds ratios ................................................................. 76 3.4.3 Regression analysis .................................................................................... 78 3.4.4 Log-linear and log-multiplicative layer effect models ............................... 79 3.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 81 Appendix for Chapter 3 ............................................................................................. 82 Chapter 4 General Trends of Educational Attainment and Occupational Status in Contemporary South Korea .......................................................................................... 84 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 84 4.2 Changes of educational system ......................................................................... 85 4.2.1 Current inequality in the educational system ............................................. 90 4.2.2 Women in the educational system.............................................................. 90 4.3 Trends in educational attainment ...................................................................... 92 4.4 Trends in employment....................................................................................... 95 4.4.1 Women’s employment status ..................................................................... 98 4.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 104 Chapter 5 Changes of the Relationship between Origins and Educational Attainment in Contemporary South Korea .................................................................................... 107 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 107 5.2 Literature review ............................................................................................. 108 5.3 Changes in educational attainment by birth cohorts ....................................... 113 5.4 The effects of parents’ education on children’s educational attainment ......... 116 5.5 Social origin and educational attainment ........................................................ 119 5.6 Disparity ratios ................................................................................................ 125 5.7 Odds ratios ...................................................................................................... 129 5.8 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 133 Appendix for Chapter 5 ........................................................................................... 136 Chapter 6 Intergenerational Mobility in Contemporary South Korea ..................... 140 6.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 140 6.2 Literature review ............................................................................................. 141 6.3 The changes of class distribution of respondents by birth cohort ................... 145 6.4 Absolute mobility rates ................................................................................... 147 6.4.1 General inflow rates ................................................................................. 148 6.4.2 General outflow rates ............................................................................... 150 6.4.3 Class distribution by class of father and birth cohort ............................... 153 6.5 Disparity ratios ................................................................................................ 157 6.6 Odds ratios ...................................................................................................... 160 6.7 Conclusion .....................................................................................................