| This study intends to prove the subjectivity of Korean women found in their historical identity, by illuminating the fact that women had explicit property rights and were not discriminated by gender ideology during the majority of the Joseon period. For the purpose, the study examines the legal provisions of "equal inheritance among sons and daughters," clearly stipulated in the State Code (Gyeongguk Daejeon), and provides numerous findings from the "Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty ( Joseon Wangjo Sillok)," which prove concrete inheritance and property rights Joseon women held and maintained.; The State Code clearly stipulated the legal principle of "equal inheritance among sons and daughters," in which no discrimination existed between sexes. The study emphasizes that there had been no change in the legal regulation of this equal inheritance rule until the end of the Joseon dynasty. The principle of equal inheritance among sons and daughters was not merely a legal notion, but a universal perception firmly rooted in Joseon people's minds and was a strong standard in the practice of family property division. By this legal and factual norm of equal inheritance, Joseon women had secure inheritance rights and exercised various property rights of their own.; Under the social and legal circumstances that securely supported the inheritance and property rights for women, many lawsuits were litigated by women or involved women's property. Women were quite vocal against the mistreatment they experienced and energetic in preserving their property rights. Seeing women's property holding as an attribute of the active subject and by elucidating women's property situations, this study is to be a strong claim for the subjectivity of Joseon women. |
