Re-examining the Women’s Movement in Cold War South Korea and Beyond

Jan 9, 2026

Katri Kauhanen, a Doctor of Social Sciences from the University of Turku, explores the intricate history of the women’s movement in Cold War South Korea. She discusses the significance of the Korean National Council of Women and how it connected to colonial leaders. The conversation delves into key issues from the 1960s–70s, including family law and women's rights. Kauhanen argues for a transnational perspective on Cold War feminism and highlights how these historical legacies influence contemporary gender politics in South Korea.

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INSIGHT

Reframing Authoritarian-Era Activism

Katri Kauhanen reframes South Korea's authoritarian-era women's movement as negotiation, not mere suppression.
This view reveals ambivalence, complicity, and transnational linkages obscured by earlier narratives.

ANECDOTE

Leaders Spanning Colonial And Postcolonial Eras

Katri found continuity between colonial-era 'new women' and later leaders like Helen Kim.
Many prominent Korean activists from the colonial period reappeared in leadership of the Korean National Council of Women.

INSIGHT

Broad Policy Agenda Beyond Suffrage

The Council prioritized family law, contraception, abortion rights, consumer protection, and opposition to exploitative prostitution policies.
It also supported national defense causes and promoted UN-linked initiatives like the Year of Women.

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In the past decade, feminism has become one of the heated topics in public debate in South Korea. Feminism is embraced by activists, attacked in election campaigns, and increasingly framed as the source of conflict between men and women. In this episode, Outi Luova talks to Katri Kauhanen to trace the historicity behind the contemporary debates and to ask why the history of the women’s movement still matters today.

Drawing on insights from Kauhanen’s recently published dissertation, titled Re-examining the Women’s Movement in Cold War South Korea and Beyond: The History of the Korean National Council of Women, we discuss the history of the women’s movement in authoritarian era South Korea through the lens of the Council, conceptualize Cold War feminism and consider how the Cold War era archives of the international women’s movement can also serve the research on Asian women’s activism.

Our guest, Katri Kauhanen from the Center of East Asian Studies, University of Turku, is a Doctor of Social Sciences whose work explores Korean history, history of the women’s movements and the transnational networks and discourses through which women organized, collaborated, and articulated agency during the Cold War.

Outi Luova is a senior university lecturer at the Center of East Asian Studies, University of Turku, Finland.

Link to the thesis

The Nordic Asia Podcast is a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region, brought to you by the following academic partners: Asia Centre, University of Tartu (Estonia), Asian studies, University of Helsinki (Finland), Centre for Asian Studies, Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku (Finland) and Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University (Sweden) and Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

We aim to produce timely, topical and well-edited discussions of new research and developments about Asia.

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