Gender Roles at School

Today is my last day of school, so I have been doing some reflecting on my year here in Korea. I wanted to share some things I have observed about the different roles the male and female teachers take while at school.

First of all, Korea suffers greatly from the glass ceiling. There are no females in the administration at my school, even though female teachers represent at least half of the teachers at our school. But what frustrates me further than that is the role that male and female teachers take, especially at any kind of social gathering.

I remember my first weekend in Seoul, way back in August, when I first met my co-teacher and my principal. During our 5 hour drive down to Suncheon, I witnessed these separate roles for the first time. Of course, the principal was driving (which is probably not too different from how the situation would play out in the US), but he was also the one to tell jokes. The women's role was to laugh and cackle like everything he said was absolutely HILARIOUS!

Now, I have come full circle to the end of my year here. I have been to many social gatherings with teachers, but the one most fresh in my mind was last week. Some of the male teachers were the ring leaders. Their role was to stand around and tell jokes in loud, dramatic voices, and to basically act like drunken clowns. The women's role, of course, was to prepare the food, and then stand around and giggle and giggle and giggle at these grown men acting like attention-starved 5-year-olds.

I think one of the reasons I have not fit in at school as well as I would have liked is because I was unwilling to put myself into either category. I know female ETAs have gotten away with putting themselves into the "male" role while here in Korea, simply because we are a foreigner, so either group would accept us. But, I don't like to act like an attention-starved 5-year-old, nor do I like to giggle and cackle at things I find completely childish and immature.

I hope that Korean women realize their potential, and try to take the spotlight themselves (but not in the childish way so many of the men do) instead of just play the role of supporting actress to the males.


**On a different note:
Last night I took my host brothers out to dinner and then to see Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince. It was pretty funny going to the movies with only them. Apparently the previous times we went to the movies together, their mom did a lot to calm them down, because they just couldn't sit still when they were with me. Jun-ho got up to go to the bathroom 3 times, and Jun-eun twice; Jun-eun was talking loudly about the movie (heehee) and physically reacting to scenes by moving around a lot in his chair; they both got up and wandered around the theater a few times; and Jun-eun was playing with the straws from their drink throughout the whole movie!! ^^ It didn't bother me at all, I thought it was cute/funny. The ending of the movie gets quite dark and scary, so Jun-eun lifted up the armrest between our two seats and cuddled with me.... SO CUTE! I will really miss him. It has been fun to have younger brothers this year, and I think my experience this year will help me in making decisions about raising my own children down the road.