The Content and Characteristics of U.S. Enlightenment for Rural Women in Korea in the 1950s and 1960s - Analysis of New Strength

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to research the enlightenment content that the U.S. wanted to deliver to rural women in Korea by analyzing the magazine New Strength, published by the United States Information Service (USIS) in the 1950s and the 1960s. The analysis reveals four types of representations of women: housewife, member of a democracy, laborer in the sphere of production, and woman leader. Each of the four types has different dimensions, and they are not discrete but rather intricately connected. The categories of housewife and a member of a liberal democracy are naturally assigned to women. Women are commonly represented as housewives because they are biological female, and are represented as members of a democracy because they have political membership like men. Meanwhile, the categories of woman laborer and woman leader are a reflection of a time when women actively participated in the sphere of production. In addition, these two types show how women took part in the sphere of production in accordance with their socio-economic status. Above all, even though four different types of women are represented in the magazine, the magazine has an embedded assumption that rural women are housewives, which corresponds with a prevalent assumption embedded in other international development projects aimed at women at that time. Moreover, it conveys the Westernized modern housewife model as an enlightened model, so content and activities for rural womens enlightenment mainly deal with household work. This research contributes to filling up the shortage of previous studies on early rural development project in Korea under the guidance of the U.S. aid agency by focusing on gender and promoting a better understanding of rural Korean womens experiences in the rural development project presented as a best practice model for developing countries.