Female Heads of Households Registered in Korea’s Census Registers Between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries and Their Historical Significance

Abstract

Generally, women in traditional Korea were thought to have been excluded from the public arena of the state. However, such perception is based on a stereotype that women were confined to the private arena within families. In fact, parts of state administration in Chosŏn Korea required women’s participation. The state granted women public roles, one of which was allowing them to be heads of households. Female heads of households, who were mostly widow heads of households (kwabuho), were primary beneficiaries of the state’s relief policies under the ideology of virtue-centered royal regime. Therefore the state took a count of these female heads of households in order to provide the basic needs for their livelihood. However, since most of these households were poor and could not pay taxes, their existence threatened the state’s finances. Because of this, the Chosŏn government only granted temporary householder positions to women and attempted to contain their number. As this study illustrates, female heads of households in census registers were temporary and limited in nature. Women were able to become heads of households because sometimes they occupied higher status in their families or because they tried to avoid the public burden placed on their household. Regardless of the reason, however, it is important to note that women did fulfill important public roles for the state as heads of households. This evidence suggests the need to reexamine the status of women in traditional Korean society, who have been considered to be oppressed and living in the dark ages.

Keywords

• householder
• census registers
• widows
• relief
• social status