Why Doesn't This Feel Empowering? Issues of Adult Learning and Education of Women in the Policy of Lifelong Learning in Korea

Women as a marginalized group of learners are now discussed more in the areas of adult learning and education (ALE), which is a key component of the lifelong learning (LLL) policy and practice in Korea. From a feminist perspective, this paper investigates what has been recently accomplished in Korea’s current ALE and LLL for women and criticizes what has been missing. Findings show an uneven playing field in which considerations of women as a serialized social collective are largely ignored, which makes Korean ALE for women inefficient and even unjust and therefore is short of accommodating the changing learning needs of Korean women. This study then suggests an alternative approach from a feminist perspective.