Consecrating or Desecrating Filial Piety?:Korean Elder Care and the Politics of Family Support

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between the characteristics of family change and the delayed social perception of older peoples care in Korean society. The divergent and conflicting representations of the elderly and elder care found within family law, mass media (mainly newspapers), and academic research from the 1980s to the present were analyzed in order to understand how family support became a source of political conflict between patriarchal interests and womens interests during the period of compressed family change in Korean society. The main argument is that weakening family care for the elderly largely resulted from resistance against coerced care imposed on women by the authoritarian family relation. Nevertheless, this study also finds that the attempt to consecrate family support and to suppress the conflicts over family support persist and negatively affect elderly care.