1930년대 京城電氣의 인사관리와 女乘務員

Labor Management of the Gyeongseong Electric Co. and Trolleywomen during the 1930’s

This paper examines labor structure and management of the Gyeongseong Electric Co. (hereafter GEC) as well as the lives of laborers during the 1930’s. Discriminatory employment by the GEC was one of the most important causes behind the hostile relations between labor and capital during the 1920’s. However, the policy was not remedied during the 1930’s but rather became even more intensified. Discrimination existed not only in basic pay, allowances, bonuses, labor hours, and welfare facilities, but in nearly all aspects of employment. The discrimination was determined by employment levels that reflected nationalities because permanent employees [jigwon and gowon] were Japanese and temporary employees [yongwon] were Korean. One of the most important characteristics was the appearance of trolleywomen [yeochajang] during the1930’s. The GEC employed trolleywomen because their attractive features and charming voices were thought to induce greater ridership. Compared to the trolleymen, the GEC employed trolleywomen who were much younger than the men. It thus became beneficial for the company to establish a hierarchy consisting of “driver – male conductor – female conductor” because it could then maintain wage discrimination between its male and female employees by using the social idea of male dominance over female [namjonyeobi] and preference for elders [jangyuyuseo]. The employment of older trolleymen and younger trolleywomen by the GEC weakened the homogeneity of their labor force, lowered potential resistance to company policies, and created a system of mutual surveillance and restraint.