Female Roles in America and Korea

            The smell of fresh baked cookies filling the entirety of a spotlessly tidy house while toddlers play on the floor  is the stereotypical realm of a woman. Women in many countries and cultures are expected to uphold certain societal roles and norms, such as caretakers and homemakers. These roles reflect how society views women as inferior due to the lack of respect and power they obtain in society. The social roles that females hold in their societies will be discussed, along with how these roles are dismissed, and how these females take on more prominent positions that tend to go against society’s expectations in specific films. The characters that women play go against the grain in Hollywood’s film “The First Wives Club” as well as the Korean film “Joint Security Area”.    

            In the United States, there are strong stereotypical gender roles for women. Since early in history, the male gender has dominated society. Women were not respected, trusted, or considered worthy enough for most roles that men play. Women weren’t allowed to hold jobs, receive educations, or hold any types of positions. They could not vote, and had no say in the household. They were expected to give birth to children, raise the children, and take care of the household by cooking and cleaning. However, the United States has moved against those restrictions and accepted women for more than just child bearers and homemakers. Gender equality has gradually increased in this society. According to Steven Holmes, author of  "Sitting Pretty; Is This What Women Want?",  “Since 1970, women have grown to about half the country's labor force, and are less inclined to stop working when they have children. More female high school graduates, 63 percent, enter college, compared to 61 percent of male graduates. The number of women-owned businesses has increased by 43 percent from 1987 to 1992 […] women are increasingly making political and economic decisions independently of men, rather than merely bending to the directives of husbands and fathers.” The United States has made impressive advancement towards gender equality. However society is still not perfect; a majority of women are still stuck in these stereotyped roles. Holmes explains that “men still dominate the top slots in the executive suites and in government. And working women still do 87 percent of the shopping, 81 percent of the cooking, 78 percent of the cleaning and 63 percent of the bill-paying “. Because of this, the stereotype of a woman’s role as a homemaker is still widely expected. Gender equality has improved substantially, but women are still faced with stereotypes and expectations in the roles they play in society.

            In Korea, women’s roles are not as equal as those of the women in the United States. Just like in America, Korean women have been considered inferior by society since early in history and have been neglected many rights and opportunities. Korea has had some advancement in gender inequality, but not nearly as much as necessary. Korean women are still very limited in the positions they can hold, the rights they are allowed, and the respect they receive in society. The households are also still very unequal because men “run” the house. Gloria Steinem, author of "Steinem Emphasizes Gender Equality at Home",  stated that, ''It is not possible for women to be treated equally outside of their homes until men treat them equally inside them”. The common careers women are allowed to have are very unequal unequal, often having roles similar to their stereotype of being caretakers and homemakers, such as teaching.  An article from “The Korea Herald” reads that “Widely contrasting figures of male-female ratios in different job categories tell us something about serious distortions in Korea's social development today. […] These imbalances at different establishments, as far as we can see, are the result of still significant prejudices against women.” Women are not only limited in the roles they may play, but as well as freedoms over their reproduction. Steinem also claims that “The reason why women are in a secondary position […] is because the government or those in power have tried for thousands of years to oppress [women’s] reproductive freedom”. Women still suffer from gender inequality, but steps are being taken to improve this problem.

            In the American Hollywood film “The First Wives Club” (1996), directed by Hugh Wilson, three women break out of the molds society has set for them and accomplish goals that most women would never dream of following. The film depicts three middle-aged women who have found that their husbands have been unfaithful. They band together and create the First Wives Club to get even, and in the process discover “feminist solidarity”, as explained by Adam Mars-Jones in the article “Sisterhood, Hollywood style; The First Wives Club Hugh Wilson”. The women start out with very stereotypically female roles. These women have average jobs, they take care of their children, and they live very stereotypical lives. Mars-Jones described that “They are entirely taken up with husbands and family.” When they decide to take revenge against their ex-husbands, they cross boundaries of women’s roles in society.  The author of "Movies on TV", Keith Connolly explains how they go about doing this by stating that “Their tactics include repossessing jointly owned property, buying out a business, and revealing shady pasts and current indiscretions until the husbands plead for mercy.” After achieving all of the goals, they celebrated and sang and danced to the song “You Don’t Own Me".By achieving all of these goals, the women overcame society’s norms. They held the amount of power that only men normally holdThe women reversed the traditional roles of “damsels in distress” by conquering their crises and becoming the heroines. while turning the men into the weak ones. Adam Mars-Jones refers to the three women as “heroines” several times when explaining the film in his review.  They gain respect and trust and prove themselves worthy in a man’s world, which counters the stereotypical woman’s role.

In the Korean film “Joint Security Area” (” (2000, directed by Chan-wook), a young woman named Major Sophie E. Jang is assigned as the lead investigator from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission to investigate a crime scene. She is half Korean and half Swiss. Throughout the movie she had a hard time gaining respect and trust. Since women do not normally play such powerful and authoritative roles, it was hard for her counterparts. However, she is very qualified for her job and proves it with her investigations throughout the film as she uncovers the secrets beind the relationships between the suspects.  Parvathi Nayar, the author of the article "Intelligent actioner",  suggests that she is qualified by showing that she “goes about her job with logic and hard facts -- the number of bullets, the manner in which the suspect loads bullets into a chamber, the personal relationships. She's good at her job.”  By solving the murder efficiently, she proved herself capable of handling the pressures and responsibility that are involved in stereotypical male roles. By doing so, she played a role that counters Korean’s stereotypical female roles in society.

 Throughout both films, the women shine as they break down the barriers society has placed in front of them. “The First Wives Club” shows how women can evolve from the stereotypical female role into that of a traditionally male role, and gain the respect and trust in such a position of power. In Joint Security Area”, Jang proved herself capable of surviving in a man’s world when given the task that usually is given to men.  The heroines of both films breach society’s norms and expectations and succeed in the male-ruled world of today.

Works Cited

Connolly, Keith. "Movies on TV." The Age 16 May 2002 18. 5 Mar 2009

Holmes, Steven A. "Sitting Pretty; Is This What Women Want?." The New York

            Times 15 Dec 1996 1. 5 Mar 2009  gatech.edu:2048/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?

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"Male-female ratios ." The Korea Herald 10 Apr 2007 5 Mar 2009

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Mars-Jones, Adam. "Sisterhood, Hollywood style; The First Wives Club Hugh

Wilson." The Independent (London) 14 Nov 1996 6. 5 Mar 2009 .

Nayar, Parvathi. "Intelligent actioner." The Business Times Singapore 05 Oct 2001 EL5. 5 Mar 2009 us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&

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ocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5953540264&cisb=22_T5953540263&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=11432&docNo=4>.

"Steinem Emphasizes Gender Equality at Home." Korea Times 03 Oct 2002 5 Mar 2009

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