Don’t just stare at the female Durban, let’s take a look at the welfare ＂women’s halls＂ in Japan and South Korea.

Recently, because of the news that "Sun Nan’s daughter was sent to Durban by her stepmother", Durban has once again appeared in people’s field of vision. Female Durban first appeared in the news on September 21, 2014. Voice of China News Night reported that "Never fight back, scold back, submit to adversity and never divorce". These 16 words were described as the four basic principles of "female morality" advocated by the school. This kind of female Durban blooms all over the country, from Beijing, Shandong and Hebei to Shaanxi, Guangdong and Hainan. In the summer of 2018, someone in Wenzhou called a group of children aged 8 to 13 to attend Durban in the name of parent-child summer camp. They make children kneel in class and teach them sensational views on female morality.

Do South Korea and Japan, both in the East Asian cultural circle, have such a female Durban?

According to the author, South Korea and Japan do not have such a so-called women’s Durban, but the two governments have opened women’s clubs for women to learn traditional culture and housework skills. Women’s clubs in Korea and Japan are not only for women to learn to be housewives, but also for developing women’s abilities and improving women’s happiness.

Art Festival held by the Women’s Guild in Guiyang District, Incheon, South Korea. The picture comes from the blog of the Women’s Guild in this district.

Women’s Clubs and Women’s Development Institutes in Korea

The Women’s Club is a social welfare and educational institution for women set up by the Korean government. Korean women’s clubs were originally called women’s welfare halls or women’s career halls, and now some of them have been renamed women’s development centers. At that time, the Korean government established the Korean Social Welfare Consultative Council in February 1952 and the National Women’s Protection Federation in November 1955.

After the 1960s, the Korean government officially started to improve national welfare, and in November 1963, the Korean government enacted laws related to social security. While the national living environment in South Korea is rising, the Korean government has begun to focus on the living conditions of Korean women. In order to improve women’s ability and promote women to enter the society, the Korean government has set up women’s clubs in administrative units at all levels. Up to now, there are 119 public women’s clubs and 10 private women’s clubs in Korea.

Exterior of Busan Women’s Club

Take the capital of South Korea as an example. In November 1959, Seoul City Government (now Seoul) set up a women’s welfare hall and a women’s career hall respectively. In 1979, the two halls were merged into one institution. In September 1996, the women’s clubhouse was renamed as a women’s development center, and four branches were set up in the city. In September, 2003, the Seoul Metropolitan Government officially passed the Regulations on the Establishment of Women’s Development Centers, which mentioned that "Women’s Development Centers should provide lifelong education for women, so as to enhance women’s ability, let women actively participate in social life and improve their quality of life".

Activities organized by women’s clubs all over Korea

Korean women’s clubs represent the importance that the Korean government attaches to the development of women’s social welfare. Most of the funds for women’s clubs come from the government and social organizations. The Women’s Guild Hall mainly offers family etiquette courses, food, clothing, housing and housework courses, yoga courses, technical training courses, etc. for women aged 13-55, and also launches public welfare activities such as consumer protection publicity. There are generally auditoriums and rooms in women’s clubs, which provide convenience for women to carry out various activities inside. Recently, the main task of the Korean Women’s Guild Hall is to improve women’s employability, especially for women without skills, providing a variety of technical training courses. The women’s club will announce the course information and registration method to the public in advance, and the training period of a course is four months.

Some courses and tuition fees recently offered by Busan Women’s Club.

In addition, the Korean government established the Korean Women’s Development Institute in order to investigate and study women-related issues, conduct education and training aimed at developing women’s abilities and support women’s activities, and contribute to improving women’s participation and welfare.

The Korea Women’s Development Institute was established in 1983 according to the Korean Women’s Development Institute Act, and it is a specialized institution for women’s issues funded by the government. The women’s development institute aims to change the traditional Korean awareness of women’s differences and realize a society of equality between men and women. That is, to create a social environment in which men and women are jointly involved and responsible, to improve the laws and systems related to the differences between men and women in Korean society, to expand women’s participation in the process of government policy-making, to improve the political status of Korean women, to realize women’s self-worth, and to improve the quality of life.

Japan female education club

In the 1970s, Japanese women’s daily study place was the "Citizen’s Pavilion", while the place where Japanese women carried out group activities was the Women’s Guild Hall, with more than 50 in China. In 1977, in response to the long-standing demands of women educators such as women’s groups, the Ministry of Education of Japan established the only national professional institution for women’s education in Japan, with the aim of systematizing various measures related to women’s education.

The chart shows the strategy of Sakai city government in Japan for cities and employment in 2017.assessment report, which evaluates the women’s reading club.

At the beginning, the purpose of the guild hall was to "carry out practical training for women educators, carry out professional investigation and research related to women’s education, so as to revitalize women’s education". It was established as a comprehensive lifelong education institution for adults with information centers and international conference venues and other related facilities and equipment. There are four main functions of the guild hall: training, communication (including international communication), investigation and research and information supply related to women’s education and family education. There are two projects in the clubhouse: hosting projects and providing services to people who study for life through clubhouse facilities.

Since 1980, the guild hall has hosted lectures on women’s studies. At first, the lectures mainly introduced women’s studies, but through joint planning with women’s studies staff, it has gradually become an information exchange place for providing women’s studies research and educational practice activities, and has become a bridge between women’s studies theory and practice, making contributions to popularizing women’s studies research, education and learning in Japanese higher education and social education. The research on women’s education and family education carried out by the guild hall has two characteristics: one is interdisciplinary, and the other is practical. The joint research undertaken by scholars and practitioners in related research fields has created practical results that are not bound by existing academic circles.

References:

1. A veritable training base for women-Korea Women’s Development Institute, Park Zhemo.

2. Exploration of Japanese National Women’s Education Center on Women’s Studies and Gender Issues, Ono Yao, Series on Women’s Studies, July 2003.

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