Nationalist Consciousness And Feminism Movement

I would like to ask a 2,000 words essay.

I attached helpful academic resource, It’s topic is the Nationalist consciousness and feminism movement in 20th of Korea.

The reference style is Chicago Manual of Style. 

I roughly made the essay structure, You can use many other resources as much as it helps. 

Introduction

• General style of introduction

Body 1

• What is nationalism?
• What historical factors contributed to the birth of the Korean women's movement?

Body 2

• What was the relationship between nationalism and feminism in turn of the 20th century Korea?  Could Korean feminism exist without nationalism?
• Did Korean nationalist consciousness and activism enhance or suppress the women's movement? What evidence can you cite to support either case?

Body 3

• How did Korean women make use of nationalist discourse in order to advance women's agenda for equality?

Introduction

Feminism took birth in Korea in the late nineteenth century. Its birth was intertwined with nationalism. Korea's orthodox Confucian patriarchy has treated women in a miserable way. Women were understood as only to obey the men throughout their life. To name a few, there were prevalent practices of child marriage, the divorce conditions and their stipulation were applicable only to them, they were captivated in their home strictly, they were kept away from the contact of outside world, the remarriage of widows was not allowed. In such situation, it was far away to include their views in any diplomatic or political decision; they were not even heard by people. Korea did not allow her women to be a part of the outside world until she needed their help and support to save the country. The irony of Korea is it acceptable to be defeated for a long time than understanding that the traditional oppression of the women needs to be stopped for the better situation of the country. The conditions of the country won't improve until the women's conditions are not improving (Kim, 1995). 

Korean feminism grew as a crucial part of national consciousness in a vein to recover and gather all the resources of Korea. When Korea was attacked by foreign invasions as US and France, and China was not able to help Korea in any way as China itself was suffering from the foreign invasions due to lack of right diplomacy, Korea tried to adopt isolationism policy for a while. However, it had to open its port for foreign trades when Japan attacked Korea and won over it. Korea started trying to muster its resources including women to face the foreign invasions. Therefore, it was for the first in the history of Korea that a rise of nationalism gave way to feminism for public discourse, and accepted the inclusion of Korean women in the national life. Korea had first time seen the concepts like nationalism and feminism, so it was difficult for its people to grasp. When it was governed by Yi Dynasty, it was associated only with China and remained isolated from the rest of the world. Strange enough, Korea took a pride in being the second orthodox Confucian civilization after China. It was second society deeply drenched in a Confucian patriarchy where women's issues are not worth being heard. In such a situation, it was a tall order to formulate a new identity for the nation and to accommodate feminism in the new national identity. The merge of feminism into nationalism was often charged with regression by different groups. It was supported by some and was opposed by others which made this complex matter worth studying. Thus it became a demanding venture to study the relationship between nationalism and feminism in Korea (Kim, 1995).

Korean Nationalism

Korean nationalism was a reaction, a reaction against colonization from West and other countries. Korean nationalism was an ideology, an ideology of self-preservation and survival. It was a survival act which was taken in order to save the country from imperialism (Kim, 1995). Korean nationalism was very different than any European or Japanese nationalistic model. It emerged with the realization of the political inefficiency of the country. To encounter the world superpowers, it needed to strengthen the internal power and to keep the internal integrity intact. The first realization of Korean nationalistic movement started with the defeat of China in the Arrow War of 1856-1858. China saw an international humiliation and Korea got a wake-up call from the Western powers. Korea could no longer depend on China for its safety and security. Korea sought its own identity independent of the long Sino-centrism practice of Korean government. This self-consciousness of Korea was branched into two opposed ideology that intersected each other until the beginning of the 2oth century. They were indigenous and western-inspired camps. One was rooted in the native Korean ideology; whereas the other was inspired by western ideology and development. However, both of them contributed to the emergence of Korean feminism (Kim, 1996).