Re-examining the Women’s Movement in Cold War South Korea and Beyond

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Re-examining the Women’s Movement in Cold War South Korea and Beyond

Podcast: New Books Network (Nordic Asia Podcast)
Host: Oti Loewa
Guest: Dr. Katri Kauhanen (recent PhD, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Turku)
Date: January 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the findings of Dr. Katri Kauhanen’s recent doctoral research, Re-examining the Women’s Movement in Cold War South Korea and the History of the Korean National Council of Women, covering the activities of the Korean National Council of Women (KNCW) from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. The discussion sheds new light on neglected aspects of Korean women's activism, its local and international dimensions, and its entanglement with broader Cold War politics.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Research Inspiration and Background

• Katri’s Academic Journey
  • Trained as a historian and in gender studies, with a master’s thesis on Western missionaries in early 20th-century Korea.
  • Interest in women’s life stories and the continuation of the “new women” legacy from the colonial to the postcolonial period.
  • Notably inspired by the election of Park Geun-hye and the legacy of her father, Park Chung Hee (00:13–03:30).
• Key Themes Identified
  • Park Chung Hee era and authoritarianism
  • Modernity in Korea
  • Role and status of women

"I kept wondering like what happened to these famous new women who were sort of among the top intellectuals and activists during the colonial period in Korea." – Dr. Katri Kauhanen (02:05)

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2. Need for Re-examination & New Approach

• Challenging Prevailing Narratives
  • Previous scholarship often sidelined or dismissed women’s activism during the authoritarian era.
  • Dr. Kauhanen argues the KNCW’s role was more nuanced than just one of compliance.
• Memory Studies and History Writing
  • Emphasizes making visible what has been hidden or forgotten rather than correcting history.
  • Links selective collective memory about women's activism to broader “memory politics” of Korea’s authoritarian past (05:35–07:22).

"There’s no need to correct history, but to make visible what is already there, but somehow forgotten or hidden." – Dr. Katri Kauhanen (05:40)

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3. Key Issues Advocated by the KNCW (1960s–1970s)

• Family Law Reform
  • Pushed for revisions promoting women’s equal rights, though success came only in the 21st century.
• Family Planning, Birth Control, and Abortion Rights
  • Advocated for women’s health and rights.
• Voter Education
  • Worked to educate women about independent voting despite legal equality existing since 1948 (07:34–09:30).
• Economic Rights & Consumer Protection
  • Campaigned for product safety and fair pricing, connecting to a tradition of “scientific domesticity.”
• Anti-prostitution and National Defense
  • Opposed state policies on prostitution, actively supported national defense, and notably the Vietnam War effort.
• Transnational Feminist Advocacy
  • Lobbied for the “Year of Korean Women” (1975), inspired by the UN’s International Year of Women, and promoted international discourse (09:33–11:29).

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4. Cold War Feminism: Concept and Context

• Situating South Korea in Global Framework
  • The research inserts Korean women’s activism into broader Cold War realities, arguing for the importance of anti-Communist, non-Western perspectives in Cold War feminism research.
• Polycentric and Transnational Approach
  • Rejects the notion that the Cold War merely imposed conservative gender roles, and instead views the period as a catalyst for a variety of feminist and activist strategies.
• Emergence and Fruitfulness of "Cold War Feminisms"
  • Emphasizes multiple, regionally specific feminisms rather than a monolithic movement (11:29–14:30).

"The Cold War did not cease women’s activism, nor did it mark a return to some kind of conservative gender roles... Quite the contrary, the Cold War rivalries and binaries were fruitful for women’s activism." – Dr. Katri Kauhanen (12:52)

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5. Archival Breakthroughs and Methodology

• Rich, Untapped Empirical Sources
  • Utilized member bulletins (in Korean and English), organizational records, and particularly, correspondence between the KNCW and the International Council of Women (ICW).
  • Major discovery: the ICW archives in Brussels, previously unused in Korean women’s movement studies, revealing ample correspondence, decisions, and reactions to political events (15:02–18:46).
  • Notable figures: Helen Kim (Kim Wal-lan), Hong Ju-cha (who became president of the ICW in the 1980s).
• Opportunities for Further Research
  • The ICW archives also contain materials on Chinese and Japanese women's organizations, opening a path for comparative studies.

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6. Key Findings and Theoretical Contributions

• Challenging the “Dormant” Narrative
  • KNCW was not stagnant but actively engaged locally and internationally, challenging the view of inactivity before the 1980s.
  • Demonstrates the complex negotiation and agency required by women’s organizations under authoritarianism.
• Cyclical Nature of Feminist Activism
  • Earlier efforts, even when constrained or criticized, provided groundwork and fuel for future movements.
• Persisting Cold War Legacies
  • Current debates and issues in South Korea—household roles, abortion, sexual violence, and demographic anxieties—are linked to historical trajectories explored in the research (19:36–22:21).

"Feminism has a cyclical nature and... previous interpretations and previous women’s movements work as a fuel for the future movements, especially through criticism." – Dr. Katri Kauhanen (21:10)

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7. Contemporary Relevance

• Ongoing Debates and Gender Polarization
  • Gender issues remain fraught in modern South Korea, with both backlash and feminist movements gaining momentum—reflected in politics, media, and online spaces (22:28–23:35).
• Historicization as a Tool
  • Kauhanen’s historical approach demonstrates long-standing roots of contemporary gender debates and underscores their persistent complexity.

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8. Future Directions

• Adoption of “Transwar Asia” Concept
  • Inspired to integrate the concept of “Transwar Asia,” tracing continuities from the colonial to the postcolonial era and expanding analysis to include thematics of nationalism and women’s war support.
• Aim for a Book Manuscript
  • Plans to develop her thesis into a wider-reaching publication, further exploring Cold War and regional feminist intersections (24:30–25:44).

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “I kept wondering like what happened to these famous new women who were sort of among the top intellectuals and activists during the colonial period in Korea.”
  — Dr. Katri Kauhanen (02:05)

• “There’s no need to correct history, but to make visible what is already there, but somehow forgotten or hidden.”
  — Dr. Katri Kauhanen (05:40)

• "The Cold War did not cease women’s activism, nor did it mark a return to some kind of conservative gender roles... Quite the contrary, the Cold War rivalries and binaries were fruitful for women’s activism."
  — Dr. Katri Kauhanen (12:52)

• "Feminism has a cyclical nature and... previous interpretations and previous women’s movements work as a fuel for the future movements, especially through criticism."
  — Dr. Katri Kauhanen (21:10)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Discussion of research motivations and early influences: 01:08–05:20
• Re-examination approach and methodological philosophy: 05:35–07:22
• Advocacy issues (family law, voter rights, internationalism): 07:34–11:29
• Cold War feminism and transnational insight: 11:29–14:30
• Archival discoveries and methodology: 15:02–18:46
• Main findings and current relevance: 19:36–23:35
• Future research directions: 24:30–25:44

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Summary Conclusion

Dr. Katri Kauhanen’s research compellingly repositions the Korean women’s movement as an active and interconnected force within both national and transnational Cold War contexts. Moving beyond simplistic narratives of suppression or stagnation, her work highlights the complexity, negotiation, and enduring impact of women’s activism in South Korea across decades. The study’s fresh archival sources and theoretical framing offer valuable insights into both Cold War history and present-day gender politics, promising further important contributions to the field.

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the new books network. This is the Nordic Asia Podcast.

[B]

Welcome to the Nordic Asia Podcast, a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region. My name is Oti Loewa. I work at the center for East Asian Studies at the University of Turku in Finland as Senior University Lecturer. Today I'm glad to have the opportunity to talk with Katri Kauhann who recently defended her doctoral thesis at our center for East Asian Studies. The title of her thesis is Re Examining the Women's Movement in Cold War South Korea and the History of Korean National Council of Women. The Korean National Council of Women is an organization established in 1959 as a Korean branch of the International Council of Women and the thesis follows local and transnational activities of the council during a 30 year long time frame from the late 1950s until the turn of the 1990s. Welcome Katri to this podcast.

[A]

Thank you for the invitation.

[B]

We could start with the classic question, what drew you to this topic in the first place?

[A]

Okay, so I guess this answer will be quite multi layered. I have been trained as a historian and I have also background in gender studies. So it was pretty obvious when I started planning my PhD thesis that gender history would sort of be the broader scope of my research. But I had done my master's thesis about Western missionaries in Korea at the turn of the 20th century and early 20th century. And with that research I dealt with the questions about modernity, east and west and also about women's status. And I have for a long time carried interest on life stories and histories of women. For my master's thesis I did quite a lot of reading about new women during the colonial era in Korea. And I kept wondering like what happened to these famous new women who were sort of among the top intellectuals and activists during the colonial period in Korea. I was also interested about the development of Korean modernity. And then finally it was in fall 2012 when I was an exchange student in Korea and there was a presidential elections in South Korea at the time. And then Park Geun Hye was elected as the first female president in South Korea and she was called sort of as a daughter of the dictator. And I was really fascinated about this discourse and about the park family because Park Geun Hye was the daughter of Park Chung Hee who ruled South Korea as a president in 1960s and 1970s. With that I sort of got interested about the authorian era in South Korea. So having said that, you can probably see now that there were basically three themes that interested me when I started drafting the very first research plan for my PhD, and those were the Park Chung Hee era or the Arthurian era modernity and women. So I just started like doing a lot of readings about the Park Chung Hee era and about about the authorian era in general. And I was trying to find something about women and something about gender issues. And when I managed to find something, it really sparked my interest. But I also noticed some gaps in the research. For example, women's movement during the authorian era was not widely discussed in the previous scholarship, or it was sidelined by stating that there was no genuine women's activism between the colonial period and the democratization movement of South Korea that started in the 1980s. So I was able to find this women's organization, the Korean National Council of Women, from the previous scholarship, but it was most often criticized and its role was questioned in the previous research. And I found this very interesting because the Korean National Council of Women was one of the major women's umbrella organizations during the authorian era. Like Audi already mentioned, it was established in 1959 and it became affiliated with the International Council of Women, one of the major international women's umbrella organizations of the 20th century in so what really caught my interest about this organization was that from its activities and leadership, I was actually able to find many of those female leaders and activists who had started their careers in colonial Korea. So the very same women I had sort of encountered with during my previous studies, for example, Kim Wa Lan, also known for her English name, Helen Kim, one such example, Helen Kim was a Korean educator and women women's organization's leader who also acted as the first president of the Korean National Council of Women in 1960s.

[B]

Yeah. So as you mentioned, so there was a need to re examine the women's movement and you already explained why there was need for that. Can you maybe expand a bit on that? And what kind of new approach did you then finally take on this issue?

[A]

Yeah, so with re examination, I don't refer to something completely new foundation of the topic, but actually to the process of history writing. And I could probably explain my own philosophy of history writing so that there's no need to correct history, but to make visible what is already there, but somehow forgotten or hidden. And I think that something like this had happened with the Korean National Council of Women. And in this way, my approach is quite close to memory studies, as I'm also interested in finding out how certain memories of the past are made. So the case that the authorian era has not been recorded as part of the cran narratives describing the development of women's movement in South Korea is also closely linked to the memory politics related to the South Korea's authoritarian past. So with re examining the women's movement in South Korea, my intention is to discuss also the history of writing and memorialization process related to the women's movement. So by bringing together Korean studies, Cold War history, gender studies, and memory studies in my research, I reframe the Korean women's movement during the authorian era as a site of negotiation rather than pure oppression. And this shift in the perspective reveals certain dynamics such as ambivalence and complicity and transnational linkages that have been obscured in the earlier narratives. So in my dissertation, I utilized the Korean National Council of Women as a case example to view how an organization representing women negotiated with the authoria state about the rights and status of women.

[B]

Yeah, the transnational activities were really an important part of your thesis. But what kind of issues did the women's movement in the 60s and 70s then advocate in South Korea?

[A]

Among the most important issues, quite naturally, were family issues such as family legislation. The Korean National Council of Women, among other women's organizations, were trying to revise the family law to support women's equal rights. Also, key issues like family planning and birth control, introduction of new contraceptives, also advocating abortion rights for the sake of women's health were among the top issues for the Korean National Council Council of Women. So I think that the Korean National Council of Women was successful in bringing to the discussion certain issues that were not probably that widely discussed before. But of course, we know that, for example, the Korean Family Law was finally revised to support women's equal rights only in the early 21st century, not like that long ago. So we could say that the Korean women's organizations during the authorian era, they were not successful in making big revisions to the legislation. But I think the success is in the way it participated in the discussions in the society. And for example, Korean women actually received the equal voting rights in the same time as Korean men. That was part of the Korean constitution in 1948. But these women's organizations, they really had to do hard work in sort of educating female voters to vote according to their own wishes and hopes, because it was pretty general thinking that Korean women voted as their husbands, for example, required them to do so. There was need for this kind of education campaigns like, what does it really mean to use your political vote in the elections?

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Some other things that the women's movement advocated are actually linked to the sort of economic things like they were active in this kind of consumer protection movement, which meant that they advocated for safe products in the markets for reasonable prices for the sake of domestic products and so on. So this is actually sort of related to the scientific domesticity discourse. There are certain similarities in these issues, like for example, or from the colonial period to the post colonial period. Also, some other issues that the women's movement advocated were related to the protesting the shady policies related to the prostitution. Also, the Korean National Council of Women was really active in national defense. And for example, it widely supported the war in Vietnam. And this is something actually really interesting and similar to North Korean case, because also of course, North Korea supported the Vietnam War from its own side. So sort of the Korean conflict had its consequences in the Vietnam War. Yeah. Then last but definitely not least, the Korean National Council of Women was active in bringing and introducing international virtues on women's issues to South Korea. For examp, the organization was vocal in suggesting that 1975 should be made as the Year of Korean Women, following the United Nations International Year of Women. And this initiative for the Year of Women actually originated from the Eastern bloc. So it is quite interesting how the idea traveled to different parts of the world to support women's agenda.

[B]

Then your research locates South Korea as part of the global Cold War and utilizes a concept of Cold War feminism. What does this mean and how does it relate to the ongoing scholarly discussions on the topic?

[A]

Yes, so instead of limiting my research to study just authoritarian era South Korea, I wanted to bring the Korean case as part of the Cold War framework and to highlight a perspective that combines South Korea and the transnational square. In the past 20 years or so, there has been a growing trend in the academia towards women and the Cold War. And with my research, I'm joining this ongoing research initiative on global war era female activism. Thus far, the most active research has been conducted on countries and groups associated with the Eastern Bloc or with the Soviet bloc. There has also been certain interest towards the Non Aligned Movement, but less is known about the sort of the anti communist side of the Cold War outside the United States. So there's definitely room to look at the actions of, for example, what Asian women did during the Cold War more closely. But the central argument and the outcome of the previous scholarship has been that the Cold War did not cease women's activism, nor did it mark a return to some kind of conservative gender roles as it has been previously assumed. But quite the contrary, the Cold War rivalries and binaries were fruitful for women's activism. So this concept Cold War feminism has emerged as an analytical lens to view gender debates in global Cold War. And probably as a matter of fact, it would be more appropriate to talk about Cold War feminism in plural, because these visions about women's role and capacity were so many and many roads were suggested on how the women could reach their full potential. Having said that, I would like to highlight that understanding feminism and women's activism in Cold War requires really a polycentric approach because the social movements don't operate in any one dimensional reality. So despite the so called Iron Curtain and other boundaries, the Cold War spheres of influence were in interaction with each other. There are several examples of this they already mentioned. The United Nations Year of Women is one example. And my own interest with the Cold War framework has been on asking how the Cold War influenced the possibilities for women to participate both nationally and internationally to organize and advocate for gender specific issues.

[B]

Yeah, for this very approach you had. So you have also utilized materials from various archives and different sources. So it's. It's really based on the rich empirical material, such as correspondence between women's organizations, their reports and bulletins, just to mention a few. And having followed your research work, I know that you got access to a very special archival material that earlier studies on South Korean women's movement have not utilized. So could you please tell about the materials and how did you find it?

[A]

Yeah, so indeed, methodologically, my research is based on archival research and I've collected the materials in libraries and archives in South Korea, in Belgium and online. At the very initial stage of the research process, I was actually simply looking through different library databases and I could note that the Korean National Council of Women has published quite a lot, and it had published quite a lot also in English, which was really interesting. So the organization published a member balladin, both in Korean and in English, and these magazines called Yoseung and the women have formed the core material for my research. It has been through them that I have been able to follow the yearly activities and core teams of the organization and how the issues were changing over time. And yeah, these materials have been readily available in Korean libraries. And I myself work both in Eoha Women's University Library and the National Library of Korea. However, the true treasure of my empirical material is the archival material of the International Council of Women that is housed by the Archive and Research center for Women's History in Brussels, Belgium. This archive includes a wide range of correspondence between South Korean women and the International Council of Women's Headquarters in Paris from the 1950s to the turn of the 1990s. So basically, this significant amount of correspondence between the local branch in South Korea and the International Head Organization made it possible to detail, for example, the events that led to the formation of the Korean Council of Women in the first place. They have been also making it possible for me to view how the International Council of Women understood the political situation in South Korea through different decades, and also to shed light on certain difficulties that embracing internationalism caused for this women's organization. It was really wonderful experience to get to read those partly handwritten letters from the already mentioned Kim Walan or Helen Kim and other Korean female leaders. Yeah, this is one of the most interesting parts of my research. The International Council of Women was led by a South Korean woman, Hong Ju cha, after the mid-1980s. For two years, this Hong Joo was a Korean female activist. She had built a career in diplomacy and then moved to work with different women's organization. And first, she was the leader of the Korean National Council of Women and then was elected as to lead the whole International Council of Women. And for this reason, the archival material in the International Council of Women's Archives is particularly strong in terms of Korean affairs because, of course, the correspondence between the President and the other affiliates have been maintained in the archive. And for example, there are letters from the summer of 1987 in the middle of South Korea's political upheaval. And it reveals a very interesting window to the democratization process of South Korea. So this archival material of the International Council of Women has not been used before to study Korean women's movement or even the Korean National Council of Women.

[B]

And apparently it could give kind of possibilities for many other topics as well.

[A]

Yes, definitely. And the whole archive of the International Council of Women, it would include so many interesting topics. For example, study more broadly the organization's activities during the Cold War regarding East Asia. It also includes very interesting correspondence with the Chinese and Japanese women.

[B]

Super interesting.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So.

[A]

And yeah, there are a lot to learn from those materials. Definitely.

[B]

Yeah. I have to mention this to our master students. Very good. Mature for thesis as well. Master's thesis, certainly. Can you summarize the key findings of your research? There are certainly many of. But what are the kind of most interesting findings that you could make?

[A]

So as a whole, I think that my dissertation is challenging the dominant narrative of the Korean women's movement as dormant or stagnant and lacking any international character before the 1980s. And here my empirical case is particularly strong, as I saw through the interaction between the Korean National Council of Women and the International Council of Women. So in this way, my research sort of fills the research gap from the late 1950s to the 1980s in the history of Korean women's movement. And by doing that, I have sort of added more gender perspective on authoritarian era and showed that women had to navigate a really complex terrain of political alliances and international diplomacy. So in the conclusion, I state that feminism, of course it remains something that the most Korean women could not yet affect. But that has exactly been what I wanted to highlight with the notion that feminism has a cyclical nature and that the previous interpretations and previous women's movements work as a fuel for the future movements, especially through criticism. And understanding the role of criticism for feminism is quite essential. What I like to add is that I think that these Cold War legacies for the women's movement and for feminism still linger in South Korea. For example, the abolishment of the family head household system has been replaced with the question on how to be head of one's own household when the family and relationships do not offer the comfort and safety amidst the economic insecurity in today's world. And for example, the decriminalization of abortion in South Korea finally became effective only four years ago. And still now women face the pressure to make babies to keep the nation going amidst the shrinking population. And for example, the matter of sexual violence against women in war is no distant memory, as now women face their lives and healthiness being threatened in relationships and on the streets, as domestic violence is one of the contemporary problems in South Korea. So my dissertation has managed to historize these issues and explore the connections between the Cold War and women, and demonstrated how women's activism and agency and networks on local and transnational scales reveal the often overlooked roles that women play in societies.

[B]

Yeah, so your study is important for historical scholarship, but it also matters in present day South Korea, right?

[A]

Yeah, I definitely agree. So I think that feminism and gender issues are very topical in today's South Korea. And we can see that also from, for example, from the foreign press. It has been really interested on this topic in the past decade or so. For example, we probably remember that in the presidential elections of 2022, the presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol was very vocal about making anti feminism one of his election teams. Also, we have witnessed sort of gender wars and strong polarization between sexes in South Korean society. And this is especially visible and powerful in different online platforms. There have been some quite radical and aggressive outcomes from both sides, like they are radical feminist movement working online, but also sort of frustrated and angry young men who also think that their role in the society has been sidelined because of women and feminism.

[B]

Yeah, this is something that we can read about in Nordic media as well.

[A]

Yeah, so. So the issue what has sort of interesting me more and more is that like, given the fact that South Korea is like an ultra modern society, it is really interesting how in different gender equality indexes it is like really lagging behind. And I think the problem space that like how it is not possible for South Korea to fix these issues related to gender inequality, it's really pressing one. And with my own research I sort of wanted to highlight the historicity behind these issues and that these are not any novel things. But the debate has been going on for a very long time already.

[B]

And this leads us to the final question. What comes next for you and this line of research?

[A]

Yeah, that's a very good question. But instead of taking my research more to the contemporary times, I have been really inspired by a concept, Transvar Asia lately. Unfortunately I learned about it on the stage of research when my dissertation was already being reviewed, so I couldn't include it here. But I'm hoping that I will have an opportunity to continue developing my dissertation into a book, manuscript or articles where I could further problematize what the Cold War South Korea stands for. And with the concept of trans war, we can draw lines from the colonial era to the post colonial or post liberation era and see that there were probably was much more continuity than change going on because we can notice and recognize that there are several overlapping themes related to nationalism and women's support for war effort in Imperial Japan versus the Vietnam War. Also issues related to the family and fertility. I'm really looking forward to continue delving with these issues also in the future.

[B]

Yeah, your research questions are really super interesting. So I also and our listeners probably very much look forward to reading your next publications. Thank you Katri for sharing with us your research.

[A]

Thank you for having me.

[B]

I'm Autiluva from the center for East Asian Studies at the Univers Turku. Thank you for joining the Nordic Asia Podcast showcasing Nordic collaboration in studying Asia. You have been listening to the Nordic Asia Podcast.

[A]

Sam.