page_title: Women in the North Korean Revolution
section_title: Competing perspectives on historical significance
hierarchical_section_title: Women in the North Korean Revolution / Competing perspectives on historical significance
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Chollima statue Deutsch: Ch'ŏllima-Statue
context_page_description: Women gained an unprecedented amount of social and legal reforms during the North Korean revolution. The laws promulgated by Kim Il-sung's regime formally accorded women rights that during the Japanese colonial era and previous generations were denied to them. Women were allowed to enter the workforce alongside men and were granted privileges — the right to an education, the right to own and inherit property, the right to political participation — that incorporated women in the public realm. Various women's organizations such as the Korean Democratic Women's League propped up to maintain these laws and nurse the auxiliary needs of the regime. North Korea continued to shoulder neo-Confucian virtues that extolled sacrificial motherhood and added a new emphasis on the nuclear family.
context_section_description: After national liberation had been achieved, North Korean authorities sought to put more emphasis on socialist construction during the 1950s. Campaigns such as the Chollima Movement were initiated. At this time, policies on women changed focus, too. Legal reforms that sought to get rid of oppressive traditions was no longer the focus, and instead the government tried to make women part of the workforce. This was based on a Marxist view, drawing from Friedrich Engels, that by participating in social labor, women would be emancipated and the oppressive structure based on the family as an economic unit would be done away with. By the end of the 1950s, collectives had assumed the status formerly held by families as the main economic unit. Of particular importance for emancipation was making upbringing of children a task of the society instead of just the family. The Constitution of 1972, as well as the Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children of 1976 and the Socialist Labor Law of 1978 instituted mechanisms for the state to share the burden of upbringing. Nurseries, kindergartens, laundries and a more effective food sector helped women. As consequence, women's share of the workforce increased from 20% in 1956 at an annual increase rate of 19% to a total of 49% in the 1990s.
  Most scholars, however, agree that the North Korean government's espousal of pro-family policies deviated from the Marxist tradition propagated by Engels, which necessitated the dismantlement of the traditional family. There are three perspective views. The first is by anti-feminist conservatives who see North Korea's communist policies leading to the disastrous breakdown of traditional society. The second is that the juxtaposition between North Korea's continual privilege of women in the public spheres and praise for women's role as educators of young children represents a new form of totalitarian patriarchy, with only lip service to women's rights. This is evidenced by the lack of female representation in North Korea's majority male political leadership and highlights the failure of the North Korean government to enforce the radical policies written in the gender equality laws. Only a few female political figures rose to prominence during the revolution: Pak Chong Ae was the first chair of the Women's League and the only female member of the Politburo, while Chong Kyong Hui and Kim Bok Sin served as alternate members. Ho Chongsuk was the first female DPRK cabinet member and she later became Minister for culture and propaganda. Kim Il-sung's wife Kim Sung-ae also chaired the Women's League. The third view generally held by feminist progressives, acknowledges the double standards placed on women during the revolution, but still celebrates the ideals carried that opened more opportunities for women.
caption: A male worker and a female farmer riding the Chollima, symbol of the Chollima Movement
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