Description: This study considers South Korean economic development from the perspective of young female factory workers, who grapple with defining their roles in respect to marriage and motherhood. Kim explores the women's individual and collective struggles to improve their positions and examines their links with other political forces within the labor movement. She analyzes how female workers envision their place in society, how they cope with economic and social marginalization in their daily lives, and how they develop strategies for a better future.
Review Quotes: "Going beyond abstract economic indicators and anecdotes, Kim...offers a rich, sensitive ethnography based on participant-observation as a factory worker in the late 1980's..." Charles Armstrong, ILWCH