Older Women in South Korea: Making Meaning and Thriving Through Adversity

In the last century, South Korea has experienced a foreign occupation, a civil war that left at least 1.5 million civilians dead, a series of dictatorships, and economic development at breakneck speed. For the older adults in their 80s whose childhood and early adulthoods might have been spent under foreign occupation or war, the world of their childhood no longer exists. South Korea has changed from an agrarian, deeply conservative Confucian country to one that is urban and industrial, with changed values and mores. Using a critical feminist framework, we present the ways in which a group of older women have made meaning out of their past struggles and make sense of—and savor—their current lives. Through the narratives, the participants talk about the meanings that they constructed from the struggles, savoring of past fond memories, and current appreciation of their improved circumstances and enjoyment of daily living.