The Transformation of Family Law and Discourses in South Korea: Possibilities and Limits of State Feminism

Since the Korean family law including the family head system was enacted in 1958, the status ‘a head of family’ had been given to the male person- the husband or the eldest son in the legal family institution in South Korea. Women’s organizations in civil society had constantly demonstrated for the abolition of the family head system for 50 years and they achieved their success in 2005. Many research questions have been focused on “why the abolition of the family head system was possible in 2005” and the dominant explanation has been the state feminism. I try to point out the limitation of the state feminism which has oriented toward the actor centered approach and overlooked the wider social context and to make a supplementary view on the transformation of family structure and discourses in South Korea. Therefore my research question is “what social conditions created a new family discourse and brought about the abolition of family head system?” The IMF economic crisis in the late 1990 triggered the increase of discourses on the Korean family crisis and the demographic change. In this transformation of family structure, the frame of family discourse for abolition of family head system in South Korea had also been changed. Before the 2000s, the cons and pros of the family head system was the confrontation between ‘gender equality vs. tradition.’ However, after the 2000s, the change of the family structure coincided with the economic crisis has involved the risk on the middle class patriarchal family model and actual decline in marriage ratio, increase in divorce and remarriage rates and low fertility rate. Therefore, the new discursive frame of focusing on particular family problems has appeared for the recognition of the variety of family in society and social right to make one’s family.