Will the violence ever end? : Exploring women’s perceptions and experiences of violence in South Korea

Abstract: Following the murder of a woman at Sindang station in Seoul, South Korea, the question of violence against women has once again become a topic of discussion in the country. The topic is in turn a sensitive one to discuss publicly, which made me wonder what women living in/from South Korea thought of this. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to explore how perceptions of violence against women in South Korea can be understood through the lived experiences that women have of this phenomenon. I specifically seek to answer how a group of women living in/from South Korea perceive the issue based on their own experiences related to violence, and what their experiences in turn say about the wider discourse of the topic in Korean society. In summary, the experiences of the women in this thesis show that they perceive violence against women in South Korea as an all-encompassing and common issue that can affect their lives in many ways. Their experiences also show that the wider discourse in Korean society related to the topic is characterised by desensitisation, normalisation, politicisation, and a clear division between those who wish to emphasise the need to solve this issue of violence and those who choose to focus on other matters instead.