Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.
Forgotten bosses: Women entrepreneurs in Korea's postwar economy
A woman sells homemade kimchi at a market in Seoul in 1951. Following the recapture of Seoul by United Nations forces, street markets sprung up throughout the city. Korea Times file
By Lee Yeon-woo
Kim Mee-sun, an academic research professor at Ewha Women’s University’s Korean Women Institute / Korea Times photo by Lee Yeon-woo
The Korean War forced Lim Hyung-seon and her young daughter to flee Seoul for Busan — a harrowing journey marked by poverty and despair. As she struggled to care for her sick child and survive the war’s economic fallout, Lim even considered suicide.
However, amid the chaos, Lim found an unexpected opportunity. She had hairstyling skills she had honed over the years — skills few women possessed at the time.
"After just three months of work, I managed to buy a shanty house in Yongdusan (a region in Busan), with two rooms and a kitchen," Lim recalled. "I had arrived with nothing. Even professors were working the docks then, so for a beauty salon owner to afford a home in that area — that was extraordinary."
With millions of men drafted to the front lines, countless women stepped into the workforce to support their families in a country left impoverished by the war. In 1953, just after the armistice, Korea’s per capita gross national income was only $67.
Kim Mee-sun, a research professor at Ewha Womans University’s Korean Women’s Institute, tries to offer a different lens through her recent publication. For women like Lim, the war wasn’t just devastation. It was also a chance to harness their skills, intuition and entrepreneurial spirit.
Despite their critical role, Kim argues, these women have been largely overlooked in Korea’s economic history. Public narratives have often centered on factory workers powering the nation’s postwar export boom while the self-employed women faded into the margins. In fact, it wasn’t until after 1990 that the number of wage-earning women surpassed that of self-employed women.
In 1956, there were just 27 Western-style tailor shops in Seoul, but by 1969, that number grew to over 2,000. Korea Times file
Lee Jong-soo was one of these women introduced in Kim's book, "The Birth of Women Entrepreneurs (direct translation)." In her late teens, Lee launched a dressmaking business in a spare room on the first floor of her home, using the skills she had learned at a girls’ school. As her business grew, she began supplying prisoner uniforms to U.S. military bases, earning a significant income.
"She made so much money that she loaded multiple sacks filled with bundles of cash into a Jeep and returned home sitting on them. Before she even married, she had bought her parents a house and a car," Kim told The Korea Times.
As women had limited options available to them, commerce became one of the few viable paths. Those without capital turned to selling firewood or vegetables, while those with slightly more means traded rice or clothing. Some women even engaged in dollar trading or smuggling, earning money by selling quality goods that trickled out of U.S. military post exchange stores or base villages.
The number of women working in commerce rose sharply — from 81,204 in 1949, just before the war, to 593,264 in 1951 and 597,257 in 1952. Even after the war, they continued to provide for their families.
A vendor sells food at Namdaemun Market in Seoul, July 2018. Old markets such as Namdaemun in Seoul were spaces where women not only dominated the trade but also shaped the commercial landscape during the Korean War. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
CEO of Soyea Lee Sang-sook / Korea Times file
Then the rapid industrialization came in the 1970s, and a new wave of women entrepreneurs began to rise.
The most notable figure is Lee Sang-sook, dubbed the “export queen” during the time. When international travel was still unfamiliar, she journeyed abroad with bundles of hand-sewn dolls and led the company Soyea for 30 years. She was even honored with a presidential citation for her contribution to the economy.
But change rarely comes without resistance. These women entrepreneurs had to endure societal stereotypes that accuse financially capable women of neglecting their household duties.
Even Lee Sang-sook recalls how two bags appeared in her dreams every time — one filled with her company’s work and the other with housework. “Balancing work and household responsibilities left me so physically and emotionally exhausted,” she said.
There was also a widespread belief that openly seeking profit was unbecoming of a woman.
“Lim eventually earned enough to open a beauty school, and Lee Jong-soo also shifted into education after building her business,” Kim said. “One of the women I interviewed said she had never felt proud of her economic activity — rather, she felt ashamed. The shame stayed with her even after all this time.”
gettyimagesbank
Women entrepreneurs continue to emerge today, and Kim believes revisiting this history offers valuable lessons and inspiration for young women in the present generation.
“It was difficult for women entrepreneurs’ economic contributions and historical roles to gain recognition, as a large portion of these self-employed women ran small-scale or even one-person businesses,” Kim said. “The men-dominated culture of the workplace has now become a frequent topic of public discussion."
Kim added, “It made me realize that the struggles faced by self-employed women should also be talked about more and be given greater attention.”