Things I Have Learned Today

The Parting of Ways (Joseon Divorces)

Prior to the Joseon Dynasty, the Korean society was very egalitarian when it came to the rights of men and women. Women could get educations, own land/businesses, receive their fair share of their family's inheritance, and, of course, divorce their spouse.

When Neo-Confucianism came to Korea from China and the Joseon Dynasty was founded, all of that went out the window. Most women were forbidden to read, they couldn't own anything on their own, they couldn't go outside the house without covering themselves or a male relative, and, of course, could no longer leave their husbands

This isn't to say that the men could just divorce their wives willy-nilly. They were a Confucian society now and means there has to be rules for everything (oh so many rules...), including how to leave your wife. This new patriarchal society did give men plenty of outs when it came to marriage with chilgeojiak (칠거지악), the "seven sins": 

1) Disobedience towards in-laws
2) Inability to bear a son
3) Adultery
4) Theft
5) Hereditary disease
6) Jealousy
7) Talkativeness

Yes, a Joseon man could divorce his wife if she wouldn't keep quiet or thought (erroneously or not) that he was flirting with the pretty waitress downtown. In fact, a man could do all of the above and the woman just had to endure it, even chatty husbands that wouldn't give them a moment's peace.

However, there were three situations that prevented a husband from leaving his wife:

1) If the husband completed his parents' funeral service together with his wife more than three years ago.
2) If the household of the husband who was poor before the marriage but became rich after the marriage.
3) If the wife has nowhere to stay, i.e. she has no family or friends to be sent back to.

It must have been such a relief for a woman to know that her husband couldn't throw her out on the streets as long as everyone she knew was dead...