The Role of Community-Based Organizations: The Case of the Saemaul Undong Women’s Club

Abstract

The Saemaul Undong Women’s Club (SUWC) was managed by female community residents that started organizing at the grassroots level in Korea. It was a successful community-based organization for community development. The SUWC played a critical role in reducing poverty and improving the living conditions of rural communities and thereby enhancing their well-being. The SUWC also implemented several community programs to increase income and shift traditional values toward greater gender equality. This greatly improved the quality of life for residents of rural communities, particularly in the 1970s. Housewives in farming villages participating in the SUWC played a critical role in the voluntary implementation of Korea’s national community development movement, the Saemaul Undong (presently known as Saemaul Development). I proposed Saemaul development as a term at the 2011 Saemaul seminar ‘sustainable community development and Saemaul spirit’ in Chung-do where Saemaul undong started. In the opening address “Saemaul 2.0 and Saemaul development”, I used this term interchangeably with Saemaul undong in developing the Korean Saemaul undong model to serve some demands of foreign countries (UNDP, 2014). Saemaul development is a model purposed to share Korea's successful experience with underdeveloped Asian and African countries. The process of Saemaul development represents a national development model from grass-root founded on Saemaul spirit to spark Saemaul Undong. I use Saemaul undong and Saemaul development interchangeably throughout the chapter. Since the 1990s, various international organizations have highlighted Saemaul Undong as a model of national development and poverty reduction. The SUWC as a voluntary community-based organization represents a successful community development project for gender equality and overcoming poverty in developing countries. This chapter investigates how the SUWC was initiated among impoverished women in rural villages and what it achieved in improving community well-being, economically and also with respect to improving gender equality in a patriarchal culture rooted in Confucian traditions.