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Dear members,<br><br>
Studies done by academic organizations have found that women in general
are very underrepresented in academia. While they may be plentiful as
graduate students (and this seems to vary depending on the field and
whether one is talking about master's programs or doctoral programs),
their numbers gradually decrease as one goes up the academic ladder.
There are more women in non-tenure-track teaching jobs (lecturers,
adjuncts), fewer women as assistant professors, and even fewer women in
tenured positions. There also seems to be a correlation with
institutional size and stature -- overall, elite private research
universities have low proportions of tenured women, even if they have
high levels of women graduate students or women lecturers, or even
tenure-track women faculty. I know of many history departments struggling
with issues of underrepresentation of women as faculty members and as
graduate students. Although there may be some institutions that buck the
trend, every study I've ever seen has shown significant
underrepresentation of women. <br><br>
What I know of Korean Studies does not indicate to me that the field
bucks the trend in any way, except perhaps in numbers of graduate
students. While it's clear that women have made strides and women are
visible in Korean Studies, it also seems equally clear that there is a
long way to go, not only in Korean Studies, but in academia as a
whole.<br><br>
If anyone is curious about the status of women faculty as revealed in
statistics, there are several articles in the Chronicle of Higher
Education, and it is likely that the main organization in your particular
discipline has already conducted a study.<br><br>
The question of whether or not women are discouraged from entering and
succeeding in academia is harder to assess, altho there is plenty of
anecdotal evidence. Whatever discouragement exists, though, is not too
different from that which exists in American society as a whole. Study
after study shows that American women are more likely to compromise their
careers to the needs of their husbands and children, less likely to
receive mentorship than their male peers, less likely to be promoted, and
tend to receive significantly lower pay and fewer opportunities for
professional development, and so forth. Again, this isn't just academia.
(It isn't even just America -- it's similar in most countries worldwide,
some countries better, many countries worse.) It seems to be fairly
endemic throughout the working, wage-earning world. The lack of
affordable, quality child-care, consistent male reluctance to take
responsibility for housework and child-rearing, and female reluctance to
insist on male responsibility remain significant factors holding women
back. And please, do not post your anecdotes about the wonderful husband
and father or the strong woman who's in charge, or even better, the
genuinely equitable couple. We all know they exist, and more power to
them. They remain, however, the exception rather than the rule.<br><br>
Best,<br>
Ji-Yeon<br><br>
At 01:32 AM 2005.01.18, you wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Dear members,<br><br>
I am writing to make a correction about my phd background that Mark
Peterson just commented on. I did not get a Phd in Korean history at all.
Though Professor Wagner was initially on my committee, he did not read my
dissertation at the end. My degree was in Anthropology with a subfield in
East Asian Archaeology at Harvard under K.C.Chang. <br><br>
As for the issue of the perceived lack of women in Korean history fields,
Ilike Charles in recent years in the U.S. at least (having read hundreds
of proposals for fellowship applications as a CKS member), I was also
under the impression that there are many women at least in graduate
school at the MA level (this is the same in South Korea too), though very
few have landed tenure track jobs yet and at present only a handful are
tenured in any field. <br>
<br>
When I was a history undergraduate student at Sogang, the Korean
professors including eminent scholars such as Yi Ki-baek and Yi Kwang-rin
were very frank in advising me to not even bother to apply to Sogang
graduate school. They told me personally that it was a waste of their
time and effort to train women when the majority of them get married and
leave the field. Their discouraging remarks actually pushed me to find a
program in America that would be more hospital to women. So there are
many factors, both cultural and institutional involved in why we do not
see more women in academia who go on to professional careers. But, I
believe there has been a gradual change in Korea as well. For example, in
the field of art history, I see many more capable women out there
delivering papers abroad and getting jobs though as been pointed out by
others, many are still junior professors. <br><br>
But, this is a good sign at least that they are getting tenure track jobs
which is a positive step forward. So I would encourage women to apply to
Korean programs. Even if you do not end in up in academia, learning East
Asian languages and studying history is always a good background for
finding jobs even in business or going on to law school. So, it is
definitely worth your while<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<b><i>cra10@columbia.edu</i></b> wrote: <br>
<dl>
<dd>Dear all,<br><br>
<dd>One slight correction to Mark's note: the junior position in UCLA
is<br>
<dd>a female graduate of Chicago, not UW (Namhee Lee). As for grad<br>
<dd>students, I don't know about other institutions, but at
Columbia<br>
<dd>the ratio of students in Korean history and literature is
grossly<br>
<dd>imbalanced in favor of females. Of the twenty or so graduate<br>
<dd>students in Korean Studies in the the departments of East Asian<br>
<dd>Languages and Cultures and in History, only 4 are male. So if<br>
<dd>Columbia is at all representative, the next generation of
Korean<br>
<dd>history and literature professors will be mostly women. But I'd
be<br>
<dd>curious to hear how the gender balances of graduate populations
are<br>
<dd>in other Korean Studies programs.<br><br>
<dd>Charles Armstrong<br>
<dd>Associate Professor of History<br>
<dd>Columbia University<br><br>
<dd>Quoting Mark Arlen Peterson :<br><br>
<dd>> Greetings all,<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> Concerning Ms. Palmers note:<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> If we look at the question of gender balance in Korean Studies
--<br>
<dd>> more broadly than Korean history -- it looks a little
better,<br>
<dd>> well, .... in some ways. It's certainly more complex.<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> First, in regard to history, Martina Deuchler has retired but
is<br>
<dd>> still working and writing. The Korean history positions at<br>
<dd>> Harvard (Kim Sun Joo, as mentioned) and at UCLA and the<br>
<dd>> University of Utah are all held by UW female PhD. Harvard
has<br>
<dd>> given PhD's in history to Susan Shin and Sherry McCullough
as<br>
<dd>> well as Martina Deuchler. Hesung Koh has worked in history,
but<br>
<dd>> I'm not sure what her PhD was in. Law? Legal history?<br>
<dd>> Anthropology? Pae Hyungil at UC Santa Barbara has a PhD in<br>
<dd>> history/archaeology from Harvard. At at Columbia, we must
cite<br>
<dd>> ChaHyun Kim-Haboush as a major figure at a major
institution.<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> If we look at language teaching, the opposite imbalance is<br>
<dd>> obvious -- more females. At AATK meetings (American
Assocation<br>
<dd>> of Teachers of Korean) there are very very few male
teachers.<br>
<dd>> Linguistics PhD's go disproportionately to females, it
appears,<br>
<dd>> with major positions at George Washington and UCLA held by
women.<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> Political Science is really lopsided on the male side. I
think<br>
<dd>> there is only one practicing female PhD in political
science.<br>
<dd>> Here there may be grounds for complaining, but maybe not
in<br>
<dd>> history.<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> Anthropology has more females, Laurel Kendall, Linda Lewis,
and<br>
<dd>> if we include ethnomusicology, Hillary Finchum at ICC in
San<br>
<dd>> Francisco, there are perhaps more females in this field
than<br>
<dd>> males. ???<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> Literature is fairly evenly balanced, isn't it?<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> So, Ms. Palmer, there may be an imbalance in Korean history
but<br>
<dd>> the wider field of Korean Studies is closer to the golden
mean.<br>
<dd>> At least, that is this observer's cursory conclusion.....<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> with best regards,<br>
<dd>> Mark Peterson<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> -----Original Message-----<br>
<dd>> From: karen palmer <br>
<dd>> To: Korean Studies Discussion List <br>
<dd>> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:53:16 -0800 (PST)<br>
<dd>> Subject: [KS] women ph.d.'s in korean history<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> It appears that the field of Korean history in terms of
academic<br>
<dd>> positions held and even in numbers of Ph.D.s granted is
heavily<br>
<dd>> male-dominated. Wasn't Kim Sun Joo the first female Ph.D. to
come<br>
<dd>> out of the University of Washington, and isn't that a bit of
a<br>
<dd>> late start in encouraging female scholars in this area? In
my<br>
<dd>> opinion, it's a loss to the overall quality and scope of<br>
<dd>> academic research in history when women's voices are left out.
It<br>
<dd>> would be strange to assume there were no women capable of
or<br>
<dd>> interested in a particular subfield of history while
overall<br>
<dd>> women have come to outnumber men in Ph.D.s granted in
humanities<br>
<dd>> and social sciences. Although it involves the study of
several<br>
<dd>> languages, Korean history is not rocket science, and women do
not<br>
<dd>> generally self-deselect in these areas.<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> In contrast to the University of Washington, which
academic<br>
<dd>> institution has shown a better track record in terms of<br>
<dd>> encouraging female scholars, and what are the numbers and
ratios<br>
<dd>> involved?<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> Karen Palmer<br>
<dd>> (prospective graduate school applicant in korean history)<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> caprio wrote:<br>
<dd>> You should look at Kim Sun Joo's dissertation.<br>
<dd>> I do not have the title with me but she looked<br>
<dd>> at the 1812 rebellion and talks about discrimination.<br>
<dd>> It was completed in 2000 at the University of Washington.<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> Good Luck,<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> Mark Caprio<br>
<dd>> Rikkyo University<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>> ---------------------------------<br>
<dd>> Do you Yahoo!?<br>
<dd>> All your favorites on one personal page $Bo?>B(BTry My
Yahoo!<br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>><br>
<dd>><br><br>
<br>
</dl><br><br>
Hyung Il Pai<br>
Japan Foundation Research Fellow 04-5<br>
Visiting Professor, Kyoto University Department of Archaeology<br>
Graduate School of Letters and Science<br>
Yoshida Campus, Honmachi, Sakyo-ku<br>
Kyoto 606-8501, Japan<br>
Office Tel: 075-753-2794, fax: 075-753-2799<br><br>
<br>
<br>
Do You Yahoo!?<br>
<a href="http://bb.yahoo.co.jp/">Upgrade Your Life</a> </blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Yuh, Ji-Yeon<br>
Assistant Professor of History<br>
Associate Director of Asian American Studies<br>
Northwestern University<br>
Harris 202<br>
1881 Sheridan Road<br>
Evanston, IL 60208 USA<br>
j-yuh@northwestern.edu<br>
1-847-467-6538<br>
fax: 1-847-467-1393<br>
[The Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea---<www.asck.org>
]<br>
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