Not the "Typical" Korean Women

by Aniqa Feerasta, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio

Google the phrase “Korean women,” and here’s a taste of what you might find: “Korean women are submissive and kind. They are known to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for their husbands, help their husbands well, and raise children well." Or, “The ideal Korean girl … does not talk very loudly, covers her mouth when she laughs, (and) does all of the household chores.”

Judging from these statements, submissive Korean women hardly pursue advanced education, challenging careers, or economic influence in their society. After all, who will cook three meals a day and raise the children? Certainly not the husband!

Sitting in my dorm room at Yonsei University, in South Korea, I could laugh at these clearly ridiculous generalizations. Yet if I had encountered these statements just one month earlier, when I was still in the United States, I probably would have accepted them as a slightly stretched version of the truth. After all, the statements do reflect the Western stereotype of the shy, soft-spoken, and submissive Asian woman.

My first month studying in South Korea has taught me that the opposite is true. The young Korean women I have met at Yonsei University are as ambitious, competitive, and career-driven as any talented young woman might be in the United States. The women I talk to face some of the same challenges American college students face, such as discrimination, being outnumbered in traditionally male fields, and having to choose between pursuing a career and starting a family. The latter is an issue that I have heard repeated in classroom discussions at Yonsei. Those unfamiliar with Korea might be surprised to learn that the country’s staggeringly low population growth rate (0.42 percent) is attributed to an increasing number of women who choose to pursue a career instead of starting a family, causing economic worries about a shrinking future labor force.

Speaking with several female students in my dormitory has revealed that while their cultures differ, Korean and American young women have much in common with regard to their professional and economic futures. Female engineering students in the United States might identify with In Hye, a 21-year-old biomedical engineering major who is concerned about discrimination and the lower representation of women in her traditionally male-dominated field. She says, “This field is hard for women, because men have more opportunity to get a job. My friend is a nurse, and she got a job easily because it is a traditional field.” She believes that companies in her demanding field prefer to hire men because of the societal expectation that women will get married and give up their jobs.

Hye, however, has other plans. Sounding like any career-driven American woman in her twenties, Hye is adamant that while marriage might be on the radar some day, for now her career is more important. She wants to improve her English by studying in Australia for a year to become a more attractive candidate for a competitive position in an international firm.

Not all of the ambitious young women at Yonsei are as fiercely independent as In Hye. Just as in the United States, women in South Korea have a variety of views about economic independence. Eun Jin Park is a 20-year-old visual design major who also aspires to a challenging international career. She plans to spend a year as an exchange student in the United States to improve her English and hopes to gain work experience outside Korea. Nevertheless, she is willing to put her professional goals on hold if she finds the “right guy,” reasoning that “it is better for a woman’s economic security if she finds a man with a good income.”

Bomi Rye, a 19-year-old biomedical laboratory science major agrees. She holds the conventional view that, ultimately, the male must be the breadwinner. “Men must work to get money, but women don’t have to,” she says. Rye believes that most Korean women want jobs, but she hopes to stop working once she gets married.

Speaking with Rye, Park, Hye, and other young Korean women I have come to know has revealed that their economic and career aspirations are as diverse as those of my peers in the United States. The stereotypical image of the submissive Asian woman with few ambitions of her own is simply not true. Understanding our common goals and obstacles is crucial to breaking stereotypes on both sides and fostering a spirit of cooperation to overcome the challenges we share with women beyond our borders.