portant to provide background information about the Korean economy, the role of women workers and their lack of rights. Since the 1960s, South Korea has experienced a surge in economic growth, with a dramatic increase in South Korea's Gross National Product (GNP) per capita from $81 in 1961 to approximately $10,000 in 2002. At the same time, female workers have also increased their participation in the workforce: the overall number of female workers has almost tripled during the last two decades. Evidently, the women workers in Korea have played an instrumental role in the economic growth of the Korea.
However, in contrast to their rising economic contribution to the country's economy, the working conditions of women workers in South Korea have not improved primarily because of their work status and their lack of participation and power in male-dominated trade unions. The KWTU was formed to rectify the unfair and difficult working conditions of women workers, which are manifested in the following areas.
First, it is difficult for women workers to organize and agitate for change because the majority of women workers do not belong to trade unions. In fact, only five percent of women workers are union members. This low membership can be attributed to the fact that many women workers work in irregular positions and small enterprises, which deny them protection by the law and entitlements to traditional union membership. Sixty-four percent of women workers work in companies with five or less employees and 67.1 percent hold the work status of a temporary and daily worker. Moreover, women workers are also unable to obtain and retain membership in traditional unions when they change their jobs due to pregnancy and domestic responsibilities (Choi, 2000; KWTU, "The Background of the Establishment of Korean Women's Trade Union," p. 1).
The chief reason underlying the large number of women workers who are irregular workers is ...