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| Korean women circa 1900 pressing the laundry |
In most post-socialist nations, the collapse of the state socialist system had a rather ambiguous impact on the social and economic position of women.
Clearly the advent of the market economy brought with it some advantages, especially in those countries where its introduction brought an economic boom. Women often have far more choice, freed from the necessity of queuing for hours to get what they and their families need and they can enjoy the new delights of political and cultural freedom.
However, there is also a pretty unsavory downside. Whatever you think of the socialist system, it took gender equality quite seriously and enforced numerous laws and regulations which meant that the special needs of women in the workplace were taken into account. Most of these regulations unfortunately disappeared together with monthly indoctrination sessions, labor mobilizations and other less attractive features of the same system.
In all of this though, North Korea is an exception. In spite of all the official rhetoric, North Korea can be seen nowadays as a post-socialist country where most of the population makes a living in the growing private sector. In the countries of post-socialist Europe, the new economy is dominated exclusively by men, but this is not the case in the North. Somewhat surprisingly, North Korean grassroots capitalism has a female face. (Click title above for full article or wait for headline to appear in the banner.)
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