As the number of women in North Korea
supporting their families through their market income grows, the rights of
housewives are sharply increasing as well. As women’s rights improve, more men
are making a special occasion of their wives’ birthdays.
“The increasing ability to support their
families through market activities has given them enormous economic power
compared to the past, and their status within their families has grown,” a
source in Yanggang Province reported to Daily NK on November 18th.
“More North Korean men are realizing that
if they respect their wives and treat them well, their family lives will be
much more comfortable, and one part of this has been husbands paying special
attention to the event of their wives’ birthdays.”
An additional source in North Hamgyong
Province corroborated this trend.
The effects of this behavior are palpable, he asserted, noting that wives treat their husbands differently
depending on the kind of birthday gift they receive. These days, you can hear
groups of men discussing what they should give their wives for their birthdays,
a scene that was pretty much unthinkable in the past.
Men would have been
embarrassed to even discuss such subject matter in the old days; now, however, “it’s more embarrassing not to treat your wife well,” he said.
It is a topic of discussion that comes up
during breaks at the workplace. Some men say that if they give their
wives cosmetics, their wives will cook meat for them, and if they give flowers,
their wives will give them alcohol and tofu. For those who say all they did was cook her a meal, those around him joke that “at least he won’t go hungry on his
birthday.”
Although cosmetics
are the most popular item, recently husbands are also giving gifts like
necklaces, rings, shoes and other items depending on their wives’ tastes. It is
becoming quite normal for men to treat their wives this way, and they know that
the economic power their wives now have also means they have the power to make
their husbands miserable if they don’t treat them well. Most men try to put a
little effort into treating their wives as a result.
It is very common, he said, for some men to
finish work and head over to the market to see their wives and bring them
dinner; quite a few of them will even bring their wives lunch during the day.
Even those who fail to dote on their wives on a regular basis will try to pay
special attention to her on her birthday.
According to our source, as markets have
spread throughout North Korea over the past few years, women’s economic power
has been skyrocketing. At the same time, it has become more and more widespread
in North Korean family culture to respect wives.
“A North Korean man being
embarrassed to bring his wife flowers has become a thing of the past. Men are
realizing that their comfort and quality of family life depends heavily on how
well they treat their wives, and are stepping up to the plate accordingly,” he concluded.
