Tag Archive: gender equality

Women in North Korean society

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Grant Montgomery

The following is based on excerpts of responses to questions posed to a North Korean defector in China:

North Korea is highly patriarchal. … In the past, women faced criticism if their husbands were seen in the kitchen, though things might have gotten slightly better these days. Women, and not men, are expected to take care of everything that happens within the house.

No matter how hard it is to make a living, the only duty men are expected to perform at home is to ban family members from doing anything against the policies of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

In other words, it is thought that the role of men is to teach their wives and children so that they will not do anything that interferes with party ideology, even if they’re on the verge of starving to death. This is often reflected in divorce cases. If a husband or wife does anything contrary to party ideology, even to make a living, this is considered grounds for divorce.And if husbands are violent towards their wives the government doesn’t interfere, leaving women to bear the consequences alone. In my hometown, I’d say domestic violence occurred on a daily basis in three out of 10 households, and less often in others.

North Korea was officially pushing for and encouraging gender equality before South Korea, but this wasn’t for the good of women. When China and North Korea officially campaigned for gender equality, it wasn’t done to free women from the patriarchy: the motive was to encourage women to go to work to re-build the economy after the Korean War.

Actually, women played a large role in this rebuilding. The government bestowed awards for working women who achieved great things, labeling them “hard-working heroines” to encourage more women to work harder.

But when things got better in the 1950s and 60s, when the North Korean economy was outperforming that of South Korea, they didn’t need the women’s labor force anymore, so they stopped encouraging women in the workplace. Gender equality and women’s role in society were considered important when women were needed but not when the need passed.