Abstract
This study examined discourses on “wise-mother and good-wife” in the 1920s - 1930s by analyzing the magazine “Shinyeosung.” This study found the following: 1 “Wise-mother and good-wife” was the ideal type for the “new women” during the colonial period. Hut the role of a mother was far more important than that of a wife. 2. The dominant discourse at the time was that the “genuine” new woman was defined by her motherhood, and she could not have a job because raising children was the most Important task for her. Hut in fact, new women wanted to be a wife through free love and marriage. They wished to be a good-wife in the “new (modern) family” for their loving husbands. 3. The Ideas of “wise-mother” and “good-wife” arose from disparate backgrounds. A woman had to nurture her maternal aptitudes; but had to suppress her passion for free love and marriage. Although she had to learn Western methods of bringing up children instead of the traditional one, she was expected to practice traditional virtues of a wife, not Western attitudes. The role of a mother was decided by experts, but that of a wife was decided by husbands. The function of a good-wife was merely a clever handling of her husband, whereas the function of a mother was considered to require professional knowledge. 4. New women could differentiate themselves from “old women” through the roles of wise-mother and good-wife; nonetheless, those roles were forced by society. They did not have any other viable choices.