South Korean Housewives’ Emerging Economic Authority and Contestation of Domesticity during the Cold War Era

Abstract

AbstractThis article analyses the impact South Korean housewives exerted on Cold War‐era domesticity. It first traces the trans‐war trajectory of modern domesticity from Meiji Japan and its colonies through its Cold War manifestation, when America exerted hegemonic influence. Thereafter, this article examines the tactics that housewives employed to gain power within the domestic sphere and beyond: earning money, microfinance, labour and side‐line work, and an assertive response to the purse string debate in South Korea. The article also argues that even though prescriptive gender norms continued to inform the everyday lives of these housewives, their increasing bargaining power gave them economic authority to renegotiate and reimagine domesticity during the Cold War.