Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 is the South Korean sensation that has got the whole world talking. The life story of one young woman born at the end of the twentieth century raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression that are relevant to us all.

Everything Kim Jiyoung has ever known has been based on male preference. I’m not talking blatant misogynistic bullying. I mean thousands of gestures, words or systems that gradually indoctrinate the message that boys are superior to girls and that men are superior to women. It’s so normal to Jiyoung that she hardly questions it.

Kim Jiyoung is an everywoman in South Korea. Her story represents the typical experience of a woman born in the early 1980s in South Korea. She tries hard at school but her efforts are overlooked in favour of her male classmates. At university, a male colleague attempts to walk her home and then accuses her of flirting with him when she declines his assistance. She applies to numerous jobs, despite the odds being stacked against her because employers prefer to hire men over women. When she eventually lands a job, she soon discovers that she is allocated more difficult clients than her male peers because it doesn’t matter if she quits her job due to the stress, whereas it would matter if the men became stressed and quit. Her male peers are also paid more than she is. Meanwhile, she is pressured by her husband’s parents to have a son.

Unfortunately, these anecdotes of everyday sexism are familiar all around the world. Even so, it does seem that South Korea is particularly slow in combating this prejudice. According to the footnotes throughout the book, which cite articles and research papers to support the truth of a typical Kim Jiyoung’s experience, as of 2016 South Korea was the worst place in the world to be a working woman.

On a more positive note, this book gained wide popularity almost as soon as it was published. Hailed as a feminist novel, it has sold over a million copies, has been translated into 18 languages, and was made into a multi-million-dollar film in 2019 (sadly not translated).

Kim Jiyoung’s story clearly resonates with people around the world. Hopefully it is helping to chip away at the sexism that is still so ordinary to so many.