The Ideology of Korean Women’s Headdresses during the Chosŏn Dynasty

Abstract

This article investigates nae-oe seugae, the institutionalized headdresses of Korean women during the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910). The ruling class of the Chosŏn era adopted Neo-Confucianism as the national religion and ideology. Nae-oe, a Confucian principle of modesty, emphasized a clear distinction between the domestic sphere for women and the public sphere for men, which led to strict confinement of women’s lives within the household. With the gradual Confucianization of Chosŏn society, Korean women had to wear headdresses to avoid exposing their faces to strange men when they went out. Social custom even went so far as to adapt the skirt and the overcoat from the women’s hanbok, the traditional Korean dress, to develop two kinds of veils: the suegaechima and the jangot. The other representative form of the nae-oe seugae, called the neoul, was passed down from the preceding epoch. As the authority of Confucian doctrines over women’s lives weakened during the early twentieth century, the custom of nae-oe seugae gradually disappeared and has never regained its cultural or religious significance. The process of institutionalization and vanishing, therefore, well illustrates that Chosŏn women’s headdresses were not a stylistic choice but an ideological product restricting women’s lives.