In this essay, I will examine how the societal attribution of women's subordinate role in society influences their psychological health and results in the undesirable effect of broken relationships. I will argue that (1) Confucianism has been a major influence in creating a subordinate role for women in Korea; (2) the societal expectation of women's subordinate role contributes to the arrest in the development of the self in women; and (3) the lack of the development of the self among women brings further broken relationships by causing in women grandiosity, low self-esteem, and a pervasive sense of shame.
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I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion for providing me summer grant in support of this project
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Son, A. Confucianism and the Lack of the Development of the Self Among Korean American Women. Pastoral Psychol 54, 325–336 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-005-0003-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-005-0003-0