"Women of the Sea" in Korea

During a visit to South Korea's Cheju Island in 2002, I was taken to the seaside where I was treated to a sumptuous feast of freshly-caught seafood dipped with chili and downed, naturally, with soju, the ubiquitous yet potent Korean alcoholic drink.

The fresh seafood were procured by a group of middle-aged women known as "henyos", or "women of the sea". My Korean friend told me that diving into the sea to procure seafood was a form of livelihood for these women, and many of them were ashamed of their profession.

But not so, it seems, according to an account by Haejoang Cho depicting the lives of henyo in an article titled "The Autonomous Women" in Korean Women View from the Inner Room.

Described as an exclusively female activity, henyos dive for top-shells, abalone, lobster, octopus, and various types of seaweed all year around, even during their menstrual periods and when they are pregnant. The women normally dive at depths of 5 to 7 meters and hold their breath for 35 to 40 seconds for each jump.

Henyos saw themselves as career women, were proud of their financial independence, and often pitied their often idle men.

As Cho noted: "Companionship is very important in diving. Divers spend what may seem to be an unnecessarily long time changing their clothes, but it is a joyful time, when they can exchange information, talk about their family problems, joke, and sometimes sing."

"Most divers enjoy diving. When they could not go diving for several days, due to inclement weather, they said they had body-aches and wanted to dive as soon as possible."

And in a reversal of entrenched gender roles in Korea, husbands of henyos assumed child-rearing duties.

As Cho wrote: "After the women have gone to dive, the village seems quiet and empty. Men with their babies visit each other, talk, and drink. They may discuss international affairs, national policies, and local politics, but they also talk about the difficulties of baby-care."

Indeed, so independent-minded are Cheju women that a man from the mainland who had lived on the island for six years had reportedly said that he would not marry a Cheju woman. He noted that "women here are too independent. If they do not like something, they ask for a divorce right there, and often marry again. I cannot take such a woman."