while there certainly exist different patterns for male and female behavior in Korea, I would be very hesitant to state that Korea keeps women from power more than the US. In the current presidential campaign, the list of candidates has narrowed down to only a couple as election day approaches, but just a few weeks ago there were two very serious candidates, from both sides of the aisle, who were women. Korea has had a cabinet-level position of minister for gender equality since the presidency of Kim Dae Joong. Granted, under the military dictators in the 50s - early 90s, women were more subordinated, although even then there were women in the national congress.

The post-war dictator Syngman Rhee actually kept a woman imprisoned, Queen Yun, because he feared her popularity and her strong-will. Queen Yun as a child age 14 actually hid the great seal of state when the Japanse takeover occurred, keeping the takeover from having any official veneer. And her predecessor, Queen Min, was assassinated because she was so effective in staving off the Japanese invasion.

This is a society which celebrates group and family achievements much more than the individual, and which, being homgeneous, defines roles through life in relation to the group, the family, and so forth. Therefore all roles are more tightly strictured than here. At the same time, rising in society is possible regardless of bloodline or family connections by dint of education. Traditionally Korea had a Confucian civil service system, and anyone could rise to very high levels by dint of education. That still is a very strong part of the culture. Not to say that connections aren't very important as well, but unlike traditional European cultures, you aren't imprisoned by your bloodlines.

while I don't parry my wife (too often)...to regard Confucianism as 'conservative' is an oversimplification. It does tend to value slow change, examining innovation, respect for the past and for elders. If you'd like a very good western perspective I highly recommend a book entitled "Confucius Lives Next Door" - it's about Japan but could just as easily be Korea. Dao has never had much presence in Korea - there's a bit, but before the big Confucian influx Buddhism had the most influence. And underlying it all is a shamanistic, animalist way of thought that's pervasive but mostly inapparent.

Regarding the women who have access to power and who have developed careers in business or politics yet done so only with husband and children lest they be regarded as incomplete. That's correct; certainly the recent presidential candidates, Han Sokhyun and Pak Kunhye both fit that description. However, the same applies equally to men. All people are regarded as less than adults if they have not married and had children. When I lived in Korea (in the Peace Corps)(many, many years ago), my friends in the martial arts gym where I went for exercise called me [my name] 'koon'. The 'koon' bit means something like 'young master' and means you're less than an adult, since you're not married and childless. Mind you, once married, you still need to reproduce to be considered an adult, and this gets back to the paramount importance of the groups versus the individual.

I do, and I remember in the mid-60s when he was a very serious candidate for president, losing finally to Nixon in 68. I remember him as an automaker, and do not remember anything about his religion being a problem....perhaps we were still close enough to JFK's campaign that we didn't need to go through that again.

Yet here we are, 40 years later, and for George's boy Mitt the religion is a big deal. Why is that? My inclination is to oversimplify and think it's a sign of the decline of our civilization, but I'd like to hear thoughtful comments.

Housework, hmmmmm. That's tough - bearing in mind things may have changed. I lived in rural, farming country in the early 70s. Korea now has become heavily urbanized, with people living in stacked apartments, and I have no idea how those sorts of families function. But the farming, small town communities, there was plenty of work, and the chores were pretty clearly divided by gender. I remember my boardinghouse lady pretty much freaking once when I poked my nose into the kitchen, just from curiosity. Learned my lesson that time. Korean farm houses were quite simple - 3-5 rooms, not much furniture at all, and housekeeping consisted of keeping the floor wiped, the cabinets clean, the clothes laundered, and the food cooked. There simply was not the square footage, or carpets, or lots of furniture, to deal with. Those folks who had larger houses invariably had servants - usually poorer relatives, that sort of thing, and even if they weren't related the young women were often treated like relatives, with marriages being arranged and everything. Even my boardighouse had a young woman, maybe 20, who helped with cooking, cleaning, and laundry.

Men in my town either farmed or had the usual sort of small town jobs - civil service of some sort, teachers, shopkeepers. And of course women did those sorts of jobs too - but they did not do as many of the farming chores. I was going to say they didn't do the heavy farming work, but that's not true - maybe they didn't do the heavy, everyday work, but for work that needed a lot of hands, like rice transplanting or harvest, they were out there with the men, while the old folks watched the kids. This sort of culture tends to develop a philosophy, an ethic, that fits that way of life, and that's what Confucianism is about, in large part.