• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.37-54
• /
• 2010

In this work, we investigated the images of (unmarried) single women as seen from the viewpoint of married men and women. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-seven (married) men and women of ages from twenties to sixties. By carrying out a content-analysis on the interview results, we could extract three different thematic types of images on single women, which are (1) single women seeking some outlet of their passion instead of forming a family, (2) single women who are enjoying a life of unbound liberty, unlike married men and women, and (3) single women who have distinct personalities from married men and women. Each of these three thematic types could be further classified into narrower themes of specific images. From the first theme of single women who are looking for some outlet of their passion instead of forming a family, one could extract two specific image types in which the single women choose their work as the main outlet of their passion, or else they choose self-development. From the second theme of single women who are leading a life of unbound liberty, four different specific types were found, which are single women with sexual freedom, single women enjoying liberty from the bondage of a family, single women who can freely choose men to go out with, single women who have privileges to enjoy consumption and leisure life only for themselves. From the third theme of single women who have distinct personalities from married men and women, four different types of images were found, that are single women who want to avoid the hard reality of marriage life, single women who are selfish and self-assertive and leading a life that is self-centered or one that is centered around communities of only singles, single women who have secret feelings of emptiness and loneliness, and finally single women who can not find satisfaction in their life style. The images of married men and women on (unmarried) single women are based on the perception that 'those single women are different from us because they are not married'. That is, married men and women look upon the life of single women from the perspective of marriage life that they are experiencing.