[Inside Chodong] The History of Women’s Labor, Like a Tree Planted by the Water...

The film 'Women Who Sew' revisits female labor in the 1970s. The focus is on members of the Cheonggye Garment Workers' Union. They were branded as communists for resisting the closure of their labor classroom, a place of learning. This was a forced accusation using the scapegoat discourse. At that time, female workers had to give up their dreams simply because they were women. They worked for their families' livelihoods and for their brothers. They sent their entire wages back to their hometowns, becoming symbols of the scapegoat discourse. The government claimed that naive female workers were lured by external forces through ideological education and turned into communists. They were punished for stepping outside the norms of obedience and sacrifice.

The scapegoat image fails to properly capture the emotions of female workers. It renders their sacrifices as a given in a colorless way. It defines them as passive subjects who sacrificed and endured for their families and brothers. It also fixes them as subjects who lost independent desires and autonomous will. In reality, it was quite the opposite. The women who participated in the struggle to defend the Cheonggye Garment Union's labor classroom chose resistance themselves. Each made a decisive choice for personal hope. Lee Young-jae, a research professor at Hanyang University’s Third Sector Research Institute, pointed out in his book 'Factories and Myths' that "most labor history narratives reproduced stereotypical discourses about female workers’ employment and entry into factories." He added, "The scapegoat discourse alone has limitations in explaining how much they longed for the city and factories for independent autonomy and their own desires."

The women of the Cheonggye Garment Union were proactive even outside the struggle sites. They refused early marriage to pursue their dreams and enthusiastically participated in various educational programs. 'Women Who Sew' concretizes this through individual lives. In photos filled with youth from late teens to early twenties, there is no trace of struggle or resistance. Only the enterprising spirit of friendship blossomed through tacit understanding and self-development shines through. The stories told in reminiscence are no different.

"I remember the Korean language teacher. She taught us Chinese characters. One day, she taught us numbers. At that time, you had to use Chinese characters to withdraw money at the bank. Maybe that's why she assigned homework to bring a bankbook. She also gave homework to withdraw and deposit money in it. She taught us how to put money in and take it out. I can never forget the pride and happiness I felt then. Until then, I used to carry coins in my lunch bag. That was no longer necessary. I thought, 'Learning is really good.' It gave me confidence in life."

Martyr Jeon Tae-il reportedly sighed, "If only I had even one college student friend..." upon seeing the Labor Standards Act full of Chinese characters. Labor movements felt distant to workers at that time. Female workers later opened their eyes to education and were able to build democratic unions with their own hands and engage in collective action. They had friends that Jeon Tae-il did not have: college students shocked by Jeon Tae-il’s self-immolation and religious figures who witnessed the harsh realities of female workers.

Friendship among female workers cannot be overlooked. Those born in the 1950s often had the syllable 'Sun' in their names. Hence, maids were called 'Siksuni,' bus attendants 'Chasuni,' and female workers 'Gongsuni.' The patriarchal ideology-dominated world derogatorily grouped them as 'Samsuni.' Despite their names, they could not live meekly. Long-term sit-ins and struggles were not about chasing hegemony but about desperate efforts to make ends meet and noble sacrifices willingly made for others. Recognizing each other, they united tightly as one. Repeating "We have lived well," they reach out to us once again. "Come! Gather and become one together / Come! Gather and become one together / Like a tree planted by the water, so it does not shake."