- Author: Jeong, Sora
- Title: Patriarchism without ‘Patriarch’ - Adoption and Child-Rearing of Unwed-mother in Korea
- Language: Korean
- Type: Master's Thesis
- Publication Year: 2016
- Publisher: Yonsei University, Sociology
■ Abstract This paper aims to reveal the meaning of “adoption” in Korea and the condition under which it has persisted up to today. I had in-depth interviews with mothers who had sent their child away for adoption and those who are raising their child alone now. Through the interviews, I come to wonder why the adoption or child-rearing of the unwed mothers are considered as “personal” decisions of “irresponsible mothers”.
Patriarchy in Korean society has a influence not only on the unit of family but also at social dimension. Men are “the head of household”, who have the power to decide the social right of women and children. This system was supported by social institution.
“The head of household” are the biological father and the representative of their children as well as the child-rearing partner of women and the bread winner of the family. Men monopoly the existential right of women and children. Under such a family system, when women who are in the “problematic situation”- or when they feel they are in the “problematic situation”, where “the head of household” is absent, women “naturally” “choose” to send away rather than raise their child alone.
However, in fact women have no choice if they become pregnant without a wed-lock. Once the husband, “the head of household”-who is represented as the father-is absent, women had to live alone during the pregnancy period without any support for child-rearing, being cut off from her social relations. Even though the unwed mothers can get rid off the role of mother through adoption, maternity rooted in their bodies never fades away. Under the ideology that “mothers are responsible for children’s future”, the unwed mothers are captivated by the never-ending “guilt”. In some cases, the unwed mothers did raise their child alone. However, the children are easily considered as “a lack of“ something and thus something needs to “be supplemented”. This is because the children are raised in a family outside ‘the normal family’ which usually consist of heterosexual couples and their biological children.
The negative images of the unwed mothers are more than just simple symbols. Rather, the patriarchal adoption system corresponding with these images keep being reproduced and solidified. Adoption in Korea society is not only a problem about some minorities, but the problem about everyone. It is a problem concerning about the patriarchy in Korea society where social beings can get support only when they connect with men.
| 
