4 - Labor: Searching for Rural Modernity

Summary

Among the major reform activities drawn from the transnational experiences of Korean women were the rural revitalization projects that took place from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, a period of worsening economic conditions in the rural communities. Danish rural programs were a particular source of inspiration for Korean reformers. This chapter offers a detailed history of the role that women reformers played in the rural revitalization movement. At the core of these efforts was an interdenominational, global Christian network that brought together people, resources, and information and linked the urban elite with the rural populace. This chapter argues that these women reformers were pursuing an alternative modernity that was inspired by their transnational experience in Europe and the US but reworked for the local conditions in Korea.