국가와 여성과의 관계에 대한 일고찰 - 탁아정책을 중심으로 -

An Analysis of the State Policy on Married Women Laborers

This study was conducted with a vision of the state as a potential tool to help implementing women's liberation. In doing so, the major role of the state was regarded as reproducing the whole society by reproducing the relationships of production and family reproduction. In particular its relationship with women in the process of performing this role by the state was observed. The endeavor of the state was examined centering around day-care center policies, the basic purpose of which was to urge married women to be engaged in wage labor to meet the shortage of women's labor since the early 1980's. They also intended to promote the social reproduction through dual labor of married women workers in both spheres of labor market and family. The results of the analysis of documents and of interview data can be summarized as follows: First, the state's intention behind the policies was to take advantage of the dual labor of married women, which would fulfill its peculiar role of social production. The state encourages married women to become wage laborers and at the same time to contribute to the reproduction of the two spheres, i.e. labor market and family. Second, the acquisition of class consciousness and the contribution to the family income essentially make the married women wage earners fall in a contradictory situation. On the whole, the feasibility of their active participation in the labor disputes and of the weakening of patriarchal relationship in the family increase. Third, this contradiction consequently means a possibility of women's liberation through national policy. However, it is nothing more than merely a possibility. The actualization of the possibility can be achieved only when these women are supported by a strong women's movement toward the state policy.