Deteriorating Status of Korean Women

Yet further evidence to show that Korea had not always been male-centric.

As recently as the 15th century, a daughter's line of descent were dutifully recorded in the chokpo (or family genealogy), and it was not until the 17th century that women lost their inheritance rights.

Prior to the 17th century, aristocrats' daughters even inherited land, slaves, and even the right to worship at a parent's ancestral tablet. And if a woman married twice, the names of both husbands would be recorded in the chokpo, "apparently without much embarrassment."

As Laurel Kendall and Mark Peterson pointed out: "Most of the social patterns we now associate with "traditional Korea" did not take firm root until the sixteenth or seventeenth century, a scant three centuries ago."