History and Justice

On March 1, 2005, the Korean National Assembly passed a revision of the Civil Law that included Hoju system repeal. The abolishment of Hoju system is a significant step toward women’s equality in Korean society. Many women’s organizations have made tremendous efforts to abolish this biased law over years and finally they have made a historical change.

Hoju system, aka “Hojuje” is a patriarchal family registration system that restricts women’s legal rights within family relationships. It was introduced in Korea in 1898. The system is based on the male-oriented patriarchal idea that all family has a ‘hoju’ (a male head of a family) and all family members are under the hoju. Family members fall in to line in Hojuje in the order of hoju, his sons, his grandsons,… followed by female descendents, his mother, his wife, his daughters, his granddaughters,… his daughters-in-law and so on. With this system, women are not a family member once they get married and become a husband’s family member. This has generated unreasonable family disputes because women are not treated equally in the family. This is also an apparent unconstitutional that every individual has the right to dignity and gender equality in family life.

The major difference that the abolishment of Hojuje will make are following:

1.
Before:
Hoju is succeeded in the order of son, grandson and so on.

After:
There will be no more hoju in a family. So there will be no more male-dominated and hierarchal order to succeed it.
Individual registration system will replace hoju system.

2.
Before:
Women who get married are not a legal family member any more. (Women who get married are crossed out in the hoju document.) They don’t have legal right for inheritance.

After:
Women are a family member regardless of their marriage status as men are. When they get married, they change marriage status on their own individual registration document as men do.

3.
Before:
When a woman gets divorced and she keeps the custody of her child(ren), the woman and her child(ren) are not a legal family.

After:
When a woman gets divorced and she keeps the custody of her child(ren), they remain as a legal family.

4.
Before:
When a women gets married again with her child(ren) from her previous marriage, her children cannot have her husband’s family name. Her children must keep her ex-husband’s family name. (This generates a family that has three different family names, a wife’s, a wife’s husband and the wife’s children’s from her ex-husband.)

After:
When a woman gets married again with her child(ren) from her previous marriage, her children change their family name to their stepfather’s family name with the court’s approval.

5.
Before:
When a married man has a child outside his marriage, the child should be registered under the man’s family.

After:
When a married man has a child outside his marriage, the man should consult with the child’s mother to register the child as his family.

6.
Before:
Children must follow their father’s family name.

After:
Children are allowed to adopt his or her mother’s family name based on mutual consent from both parents.

The revised Civil Law will take effect in 2008.