IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v33y2022i2p351-376.html

Understanding women’s empowerment in post-Covid Korea: A historical analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Haeyoung Jang
  • Seung-Ho Kwon

Abstract

South Korea has been faced with a widening economic gender gap during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. To inform discussion of Korean women’s future following the pandemic, this article explores the country’s history of women’s empowerment. It identifies cultural, educational, economic, and political changes, and their long-term effects on women’s role and status. The analysis is based on data collected from Korea’s national statistical database and a review of relevant literature. Findings inform policy directions for advancing women’s economic empowerment in Korea and other countries following a similar development path and contribute to expanding our understanding of the factors and relations influencing women’s empowerment. JEL codes : J160

Suggested Citation

  • Haeyoung Jang & Seung-Ho Kwon, 2022. "Understanding women’s empowerment in post-Covid Korea: A historical analysis," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 351-376, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:33:y:2022:i:2:p:351-376
    DOI: 10.1177/10353046221078880
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10353046221078880
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/10353046221078880?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    2. Gaëlle Ferrant, 2011. "How Gender Inequalities Hinder Development : Cross-Country Evidence," Post-Print halshs-00609828, HAL.
    3. Gaëlle Ferrant, 2015. "How Do Gender Inequalities Hinder Development ? Cross-Country Evidence," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 117-118, pages 313-352.
    4. Seema Jayachandran, 2015. "The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 63-88, August.
    5. repec:wbk:wbpubs:4389 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Sunyu Ham, 2021. "Explaining Gender Gaps in the South Korean Labor Market During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 133-151, April.
    7. Selin Dilli & Auke Rijpma & Sarah G. Carmichael, 2015. "Achieving Gender Equality: Development versus Historical Legacies," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(1), pages 301-334.
    8. Li Ma, 2016. "Female labour force participation and second birth rates in South Korea," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 173-195, June.
    9. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    10. Kaivan Munshi & Mark Rosenzweig, 2006. "Traditional Institutions Meet the Modern World: Caste, Gender, and Schooling Choice in a Globalizing Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1225-1252, September.
    11. Hye-Ryun Kang & Chris Rowley, 2005. "Women in Management in South Korea: Advancement or Retrenchment?," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 213-231, June.
    12. Monica Bozzano, 2015. "On the Historical Roots of Women’s Empowerment across Italian Provinces: Religion or Family Culture?," Department of Economics 0052, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    13. Noël Bonneuil & Younga Kim, 2017. "Precarious employment among South Korean women: Is inequality changing with time?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 28(1), pages 20-40, March.
    14. repec:wbk:wbpubs:4391 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 469-530.
    16. Bozzano, Monica, 2017. "On the historical roots of women's empowerment across Italian provinces: religion or family culture?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-46.
    17. Lídia Farré & Francis Vella, 2013. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Role Attitudes and its Implications for Female Labour Force Participation," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 80(318), pages 219-247, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kosec, Katrina & Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung & Schmidt, Emily & Song, Jie, 2021. "Perceptions of relative deprivation and women’s empowerment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Bernardus Van Doornik & David Schoenherr & Janis Skrastins, 2025. "Escaping Death: individual mobility and female mortality," Working Papers Series 621, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    3. Anja Tolonen, 2019. "Endogenous Gender Roles: Evidence from Africa’s Gold Mining Industry," OxCarre Working Papers 209, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    4. Huichao Du & Yun Xiao & Liqiu Zhao, 2021. "Education and gender role attitudes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 475-513, April.
    5. repec:osf:socarx:dk4bc_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Araujo, Rafael & Borges, Bruna & Costa, Francisco & Santos, Kelly, 2025. "Seeds of disparity: The gender land divide from Brazil’s agricultural transition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    7. Fredriksson, Per G. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2023. "Irrigation and gender roles," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    8. Fredriksson, Per G. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2020. "Irrigation and Culture: Gender Roles and Women’s Rights," GLO Discussion Paper Series 681, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. S Anukriti & Catalina Herrera‐Almanza & Praveen K. Pathak & Mahesh Karra, 2020. "Curse of the Mummy‐ji: The Influence of Mothers‐in‐Law on Women in India†," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(5), pages 1328-1351, October.
    10. Gaurav Dhamija & Punarjit Roychowdhury & Binay Shankar, 2025. "Does urbanization empower women? Evidence from India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-47, March.
    11. Sven Horak & Yuliani Suseno, 2023. "Informal Networks, Informal Institutions, and Social Exclusion in the Workplace: Insights from Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations in Korea," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 633-655, September.
    12. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Yuan, Song, 2022. "Demographic Shocks and Women’s Labor Market Participation: Evidence from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 875-912, September.
    13. Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2022. "Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 899-927, March.
    14. Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia & Gabriele Cappelli, 2024. "Missing girls in Liberal Italy, 1861–1921," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(1), pages 185-211, February.
    15. Joseph Keneck‐Massil & Iliassou Nkariepoun‐Njoya & Bernard Clery Nomo‐Beyala, 2024. "Does women's political empowerment matter in military spending?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 316-350, May.
    16. Paola Demartini, 2019. "Why and How Women in Business Can Make Innovations in Light of the Sustainable Development Goals," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-8, August.
    17. James Fenske & Bishnupriya Gupta & Cora Neumann, 2025. "Missing women in colonial India," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 78(4), pages 997-1038, November.
    18. Melike Kökkizil, 2022. "Parental Religiosity and Missing School-Girls in Turkey," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS91, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    19. Izumi, Yutaro & Park, Sangyoon & Yang, Hyunjoo, 2023. "The effects of South Korean Protestantism on human capital and female empowerment, 1930–2010," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 422-438.
    20. Ferrant, Gaëlle & Tuccio, Michele, 2015. "South–South Migration and Discrimination Against Women in Social Institutions: A Two-way Relationship," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 240-254.
    21. Maravall Buckwalter, Laura & Baten, Joerg, 2019. "Valkyries: Was gender equality high in the Scandinavian periphery since Viking times? Evidence from enamel hypoplasia and height ratios," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 181-193.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:33:y:2022:i:2:p:351-376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.