Culture Change and Gender: The Case Study of Korea and the Balkans
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Kim Jin-Myung 
Published: June 2018

Focusing on gender relationship, this thesis deals with the nature of power that affects everyday interpersonal relationships. There have been two kinds of approaches to the subject ; the materialistic and the idealistic perspective. The former emphasizes the materialistic production process and regards sexual oppression as a by-product of class relation determined by the mode of production. The latter analyzes the value and norm, in order to explain the existence of patriarchal ideology permeating into the individual consciousness. However these approaches tend to be either too subjective or too objective, and thus view the subject and the object as separated from each other.
The present study, in this regard, adopts the post-structural method developed by Foucault, which tries to unite such dichotomy in the flow of language and knowledge.
The base materials were collected through the case study of Korea, and the Balkans.
The ideology of male superiority is widely practised in Korea, and the Balkans.
In Korea and the Balkans, various kind of statements regarding gender are found. A certain regularity is found in these statements. Various elements form a system of formality which generates various behaviours related to the sexual oppression and the formation of the patiarchal discourse.
The ideology of male superiority works to oppress women throughout their lives, even sometimes to depriving them of their lives. Both men and women take it for granted and regard it as unquestionable. This reveals a typical way by which the individual is indoctrinated into the control of discourse and the function of power.
Some western feminist scholars regard economic contribution and social coherence as the most important factors to enhance the status of females. Although the case of Korea and the Balkans concerned here has these two factors, women are still inferior to men. The final decision making and the representative role are occupied by the male members only, and women are totally subordinate to men, acting as mere assistants. Any kind of public group is exclusively formed by men and the female-inferiority is accepted as natural by both men and women .
The economic contribution of woman is a matter-of-course, a part of her devotion to her husband and family, and neither man nor woman has the slightest idea that social status can be achieved by the economic contribution of the women in the family. And the exclusive right over the family properties is still held by the male head of the family. Such patriarchal power is a part of dominant power and we have seen that it is related to the power in daily lives through regulation of knowledge.
The women also have their social organizations based on close personal relationships but they do not have any influence on public matters. This is due to the socio-structural factor of the village, which is characterized by the principles of the patrilocal residence and patrilineal descent, male possession of production means, and the interrelation of the political power exclusively possessed by men and the symbolic system. In addition, these factors reinforce the effect of the patriarchal discourse.
Thus considered, the female-inferiority found in Korea and the Balkans must be seen as a product not only of patriarchal ideology, but also the combination of the patriarchal discursive and non-discursive fields that affects the political and the economical process. For patriarchal ideology is accepted differently by members of different social statuses, the discourse loses its influence if it comes from members who have not the materialistic basis for patriarchal power.