Legal Disputes, Women’s Legal Voice, and Petitioning Rights in Late Joseon Korea

1 - Legal Disputes, Women’s Legal Voice, and Petitioning Rights in Late Joseon Korea

from Part I - Rights in Historical Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2021

Jisoo M. Kim

Edited by

Celeste L. Arrington and

Patricia Goedde

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Celeste L. Arrington: Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
Patricia Goedde: Affiliation:
Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul

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Summary

Based on a neo-Confucian vision that the monarch’s mandate relied on listening to his people’s grievances, the Joseon state (1392–1910) empowered subjects regardless of gender or status to petition the sovereign regarding grievances not rectified in lower courts. While Joseon-era women are usually considered to have been silent subjects outside the home, their petitioning activity shows that women, irrespective of their status, had the same legal rights as men to appeal grievances to the state. This chapter parses women’s linguistic practices in claims-making to show how their petitioning rights complicated gender dynamics of Confucian society. The gender hierarchy was reinforced through women’s narrative strategy as they appropriated discourses of domesticity. At the same time, I posit that women as legal agents were re-gendering legal identity by constructing a sense of personhood via their petitioning. Through gendered claims, women struggled to defend not only themselves and their sense of morality but also their entire family.

Keywords

Petitions neo-Confucianism Joseon Korea women’s rights gender legal capacity family law language vernacular

Type: Chapter
Information: Rights Claiming in South Korea , pp. 21 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108893947 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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