Changing relationships between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law in urban South Korea

This article analyzes the relationship between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law in upper-middle-class families in urban South Korea. The relationship is a process in which competing patriarchal and gender ideologies are called upon. As nuclearization of the family increases, daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law no longer share a common residence. However, this does not mean that families are reduced to their most elementary nuclear form and achieve independence from extended kin. Rather, nuclear family members are deeply involved in the lives of extended kin and. at the same time, they are influenced by the latter. It is no coincidence that daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law take important, yet different roles in kin-work. This article argues that changing relationships between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law do not simply concern two female family members. They exemplify many dimensions of the rapidly industrializing society and highlight the dialectic interplay between patriarchal and late-capitalistic ideologies.