Gender Empowerment in South Korean Development :

Lessons for Foreign Aid

Eun Mee Kim and Jae Eun Lee

Abstracts

South Korea's rapid economic development in the 20th century had in

its core women's employment in labor-intensive export industries.

 This paper examines South Korea's economic development through the lens

of women's employment and gender empowerment. Although women's empowerment

was not part of a goal of South Korea's development, large mobilization of

 women in the exporting light manufacturing sector eventually led to women's

 empowerment. Using OECD/DAC's guidelines on gender mainstreaming and gender equality,

the paper examines how the South Korean experience can provide an alternative

 to women's empowerment in developing countries. We conclude that there has

 to be greater sensitivity to address gender-related issues including

 gender-mainstreaming and gender-sensitive budgets in order to help women

 attain economic as well as political empowerment

in development cooperation.