How Rural Capacity Building Program Inspired Girl’s Education in 1970s Korea

Abstract

We explore how providing equal opportunity to women with leadership and training can encourage girls’ education with the case of South Korea’s rural development program (Saemaul Undong; SMU) in the 1970s. To ensure the success of the program, the Korean government offered leadership training to one male and one female for each village. We provide evidence how training participation affected rural women’s perception of work and education, both qualitatively and quantitatively. We find a positive effect of cumulative number of female SMU leaders on female enrollment rate five year later. Our findings suggest that short-term capacity building can be an effective policy tool for promoting girls’ status in developing countries.