Women, Development, and Health UNDERSTANDING WOMEN, HEALTH, AND SOCIAL CHANGE: THE CASE OF SOUTH KOREA

Since the 1960s, South Korea has experienced rapid economic development and an improvement in the health of its population. During this period there have been marked increases in women’s educational and occupational opportunities. But despite these improvements, women still suffer higher levels of gender discrimination than their counterparts in many other countries at similar stages of development. Most dramatically, there are still high levels of sex-selective abortion. Women have lower socioeconomic status than men, and their lives are markedly restricted by the cultural values associated with Confucianism. This article explores the effects of these factors on women’s health. Despite their greater longevity, South Korean women still report higher rates of morbidity and distress than men. This can be compared with the “gender paradox ” in health reported in many developed countries during the 1970s and 1980s. More detailed research is needed on the factors influencing the health of South Korean women and on related trends in other newly industrializing Asian societies. There is now an extensive literature on the links between women’s health and illness and their changing social and economic circumstances. Data collected in the developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s showed that women lived longer than men but also tended to report more sickness and distress. This was assumed to reflect continuing gender inequalities both at work and at home. During the 1990s these ideas came under critical scrutiny, but few attempts were made to examine them in a broader historical or comparative context. Over the same period, a number of “newly industrializing ” countries have experienced rapid economic and social transitions. These include the East Asian “tigers, ” which show both similarities and differences with earlier cases o