도시 저소득층 여성의 자립과 조직활동 - 서울시 M구 Y동 <하나여성회>를 중심으로 -

Organizational Activities for Underprivileged Women's Self-Help : "Hana Women's Association" of Y-dong in Seoul

The present paper explores organizational activities of underprivileged women for their self-help, which were carried out for some 10 years, 1984 to 1994. The main target group of this study was members of "Hana Women's Association" established for underprivileged women who were residing at a slum area in Seoul. The study is largely based on a long-term on-the spot suveys as mentioned above. A new approach was adopted for this study: i. e. the bottom-up method instead of the up-bottom social scientific method. In other words, the survey was conducted centering on the target women, thus all activities ranged from forming a rapport between researchers and the group to selecting cotents of programs for their activities are initiated by the women. It was the first attempt of its kind in Korea for women's self-help. In doing so, Korean Women's Institute set up "the 2nd Social Welfare Center of Ewha Womans University" at the community for the purpose. Various programs such as meetings of "Hana Women's Association"; "Hana Study Rooms" for elementary and secondary school children of members of the association; economic activities for generating family incomes; "Open hearing meetings for residents on the Housing Improvement Project", "Vaccinations for the communtiy children," "General health checkups for the community residents," "Educational programs for parents", "Taedong-nori(Festival) for the youths of Y-dong", and so forth were carried out centering around the center. Findings observed through past activities may be summarized as follows: First, in their childhood, the underprivileged women were always in the position of the weak exploited in the process of industrialization. Their economic distress pushed them into joining in marriage, namely a semi-forced marriage. However, such a marriage and conjugal life soon turned out to be another oppressions and bonds for them. Therefore, they can be said to be scapegoats in this patriarchal capitalist society. Secondly, they are consistently suffering from economic difficulties because of their unstable employments caused by lack of qualifications as a labor force-low-schooling and unskilled labor. Their husbands are also engaged in unstable jobs such as daily manual workers, etc. Accordingly, the women have to share economic burdens with their husbands more than any other social classes, and, indeed, housewives' contribution to their family subsistance is considerable. Thirdly, the underprivileged women frequently experience frustrations from their lack of self-confidence and low social status accrued by three factors-a woman, low-education, and low income, but they live with hopes for the future by projecting their discouraged dreams on their children's education and rearing. Fourthly, they have open social relationships with neighbors in general. They found kye (a traditional mutual loan club came down from ancient Korea) with neighboring women to share common emotions at the occasions of congratulations and condolences as well as to save up a certain amount of money. Thus the club provides a kind of mutual aid system to help them financially and psychologically. Fifthly, it is true that an organizational activity of women is a good method of stimulating them to recover their lost self-worth, although such activities are regarded as a start-up point for women's empowerment in politics, especially in this local self-government era, which can provide a reception desk for solving various community problems more officially. As this survey shows, organizations for the underprivileged are very needed for those women who are alienated by this highly academic background oriented society, because the organization can work as a supporting foundation for them. Sixthly, a woman's problems cannot be treated as a certain individual woman's private ones. They cannot be separated from family and other mixed problems. In an organization of underprivileged women, approaches to