“I'm my mother's daughter, I'm my husband's wife, I'm my child's mother, I'm nothing else”: Resisting traditional Korean roles as Korean American working women in Seoul, South Korea

Abstract

Synopsis In recent years, return migration trips to the ancestral homeland by diasporic individuals have been increasing, often framed as a search for roots and a sense of belonging and home. This study offers a gendered analysis of return migration based on the work narratives of second-generation Korean American women in the South Korean context. Through an examination of the experiences within the South Korean labor market, the study found Korean American women relied heavily on dominant notions of white privilege and patriarchy that upheld a hierarchical relationship of the US to South Korea. These interlocking ideologies constructed the US as a modern, gender egalitarian country that has achieved gender equality, while South Korea remained constrained by traditional patriarchal attitudes and practices that left little room for successful women in the workforce. In response, the participants create new identities that highlight their agency as the ideal cosmopolitan worker in a rapidly globalizing South Korean economy.