Chanyang-hoe
Chanyang-hoe was a Korean women's organization, founded in 1898.[1] It has been referred to as the first women's organization in Korea.[2]
The Chanyang-hoe was founded by rich upper class widows. In this time period, Korea went through a rapid modernization, and Western missionaries, doctors and teachers had entered Korea and started schools where girls were accepted, which had spread new ideas about women's position.
The goal of the members of the Chanyang-hoe was to free women from the Confucian gender segregation and achieve the same freedom and equality as enjoyed by Western women, and they viewed education as a way to reach that goal.[2] They lobbied for the government to start schools for girls, and the first state school for girls was eventually founded by the government in 1908. [2]
The organization was followed by a number of women's organizations the following years; however they were all disbanded when Korea was made a Japanese colony in 1910, and from that point until the liberation of 1945, organized feminism in Korea was often underground and allied with the resistance movement for Korean independence.