The Changing Clothing-Image of Women Politicians in Korea in Relation to the Improvement of Women's Status

A person's external image is a non-verbal form of communication, through which the person's tastes, mode of thought, preferences, and overall personality is expressed. The dominant factor in building an external image is clothing, since clothing-images provide the most information about a person in the least amount of time. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the clothing- images of women politicians and the improvement of women's social status in Korea, by focusing on changes in clothing-image of female politicians at public functions throughout modern Korean history, and inquiring into the method of classification concerning aforementioned images. The time period of this study starts from 1945, when the first female political party was established, to the 2008 presidential elections. The methodology of this study consists of literature study of related books, theses and journals, which was jointly conducted with empirical study consisting of the research of news photographs of major daily newspapers. This study confirmed the clothing images of women politicians since liberation till 2000's reflects the directions of women's movement and their status in return. It is especially meaningful that the sudden increase of romantic and feminine images among the women politician in Korea is the reflection of the ideas of postmodern feminism which emphasize the acknowledgement of womanhood and the enjoyment of being a woman as its core.