• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.137-151
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• 2007

The characteristics of Hyeonmoyangcheo-ism (wise mother, good wife) in the 1950s, which were observed through the girls' school curriculums and homekeeping textbooks, were arranged as follows. Firstly, Hyeonmoyangcheo-ism in homekeeping textbooks in the 1950s stressed the modern housewife. The Confucianwomen's virtues, such as submissiveness, faithfulness and samjongjido (obedience to father, husband and son), that were in girls' moral training and home management textbooks during the Japanese imperialism. This was a part of girls' education built on democracy and equality asserted by a new Korea, the 'modern nation'. Secondly, with the increasing demands for women's labor after the Korean War, women's occupations were reinforced and incorporated in homekeeping textbooks in the 1950s. Even though having a job was a secondary task to the role of a homemaker, the details of women's occupation illustrates the characteristics of Hyeonmoyangcheo-ism in this period of time. Thirdly, The resident practice program emphasized the tradition women's behavior along with the modern homemaker, the rational designer of homekeeping. This seems to have been reinforced from the criticism towards women based on Westernization after the Korean War.