Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel

Jiyoung finds college academically challenging. Despite her perfect attendance and devoted studying, Jiyoung has a 2.0 GPA.

Many students struggle to pay for school. One of her close friends drops out and moves home to save money. Jiyoung is in a relatively stable situation: Her parents help pay for tuition and let her live at home.

Jiyoung joins clubs to meet people and discovers a more sociable side of her personality. In the hiking club, she meets her first boyfriend. He is a physical education major and enjoys taking her to soccer matches. She likes to take him to campus film screenings. They spend most of their time together, studying and eating meals with one another. He is a good listener.

Jiyoung’s mother learns that a hospital is opening across the street from their shop. She has the idea to start a porridge restaurant and convinces her husband to attempt another business venture. It is a success.

Jiyoung’s father comes home one night after drinking with friends. He tells the family that his career after the financial crisis has proved far more successful than the careers of his friends. He is happy with the family and proud of himself. Mother reminds him that the porridge business was her idea and his daughters mostly raised themselves. He readily admits his wife’s superior business acumen.

Jiyoung’s boyfriend begins his compulsory military service. His personality is altered by the stress of his enlistment. They grow distant while he is away and fight when they are together during his leave. Jiyoung breaks up with him. He calls and texts her incessantly. One night he passes out drunk in front of her parents’ porridge shop. A rumor spreads that she cheated on him while he was away.

Jiyoung reluctantly continues attending the hiking club to keep an eye on the new young women in the predominantly male club. Jiyoung is especially fond of seeing her friend Cha Seungyeon. The men in the club engage in unwelcome acts of misguided chivalry. They value the women for adding beauty and vitality, but the women want to be treated as equals. Seungyeon is determined to remain in the club until it elects its first female president. That doesn’t happen, however, until a decade later.

On an overnight hiking club trip, Jiyoung overhears a group of men discussing her romantic availability. She is especially disturbed to hear an older student—who has always behaved maturely toward her—discussing her in crass terms. He likes her, but he objects to the idea of dating her, comparing her to a piece of chewed gum.

Jiyoung realizes that even seemingly nice men degrade women when they are around other men. The next day, he speaks to her on the hike as though nothing has changed. She wants to tell him what she overheard but doesn’t speak.

At the end of her junior year, Jiyoung begins preparations to seek future employment. She joins a career prep group where she befriends a female student named Yun Hyejin.

Jiyoung is hopeful about her job prospects; Hyejin is less optimistic. She points out that all the other students at the job fairs are men. Jiyoung realizes this is true and acknowledges that she has also been the only woman at career-oriented alumni events. Department heads at their university only recommend men to job recruiters. Women are significantly underrepresented in the business. Studies show that recruitment officers openly admit to preferring male applicants.

Hyejin tells Jiyoung about a former female student at their school who filed a complaint over the sexist recommendation practices. The head of the department replied that actions like her complaint made women unattractive candidates for recommendation. The student later found a good job but quit after six months when she discovered that the company did not promote women to top positions and did not offer maternity leave. Statistics on maternity leave and women in management corroborate the student’s anecdotal experience. The student later graduated from a prestigious law school; her former university celebrated this achievement. Jiyoung feels discouraged the next time she sees new job recruitment notices.

Jiyoung sends out 43 applications and receives no reply. Finally, she secures an interview. On the way to the interview, a cab driver implies that he is doing her a favor by driving her there.

She is interviewed alongside two other women. For the final interview question, a middle-aged man asks what the women would do if they were touched inappropriately by a client. Jiyoung says she would find a way to leave the room. The second woman says she would threaten to press sexual harassment charges. The third woman says that she would check her own behavior and outfit to see if she had prompted the harassment. Jiyoung realizes that the third woman’s answer was most agreeable to the interviewer. She regrets that she didn’t think of it. Jiyoung isn’t hired. She calls their HR department and learns that none of the three interviewees were hired. She screams in anger at a mirror, enraged by the social acceptance of sexual harassment. She attends more interviews, enduring constant inappropriate behavior from male interviewers. None of the interviews lead to job offers.

Jiyoung starts a relationship with a new boyfriend. He is patient and supportive through Jiyoung’s stressful job search. Two days before graduation, Jiyoung argues with her father at breakfast. In a moment of frustration, he tells her to stay out of trouble and get married. Jiyoung’s mother slams her spoon on the table and strongly admonishes Father for his remark. Father is so shocked that he starts hiccupping. Jiyoung has never seen her father hiccup before. That night, she finally receives a job offer. She and her boyfriend celebrate.

Jiyoung graduates from college. Her boyfriend attends the ceremony with her family. They go out for coffee afterward. Father gives the boyfriend his credit card and encourages him and Jiyoung to have an evening together. They go to dinner, a movie, and a bookstore. Afterward, Jiyoung’s boyfriend catches a snowflake on his tongue. She tells him to make a wish. He wishes her career success.

Jiyoung starts her new job at a marketing firm. She is proud to be seen wearing her company ID lanyard at restaurants during her lunch break. She is one of four new employees and is the youngest. Men dominate management and leadership roles at the company.

Jiyoung is in the habit of bringing coffee to meetings and clearing dishes afterward. Her team leader Kim Eunsil is the only female leader at the company. Eunsil and her husband live with her mother, who helps care for her daughter. Jiyoung thinks about how her grandmother lived with her family but did not help her mother with household or childcare tasks. Eunsil tells Jiyoung that it’s not her job to serve the rest of the staff. She also notes that a male employee would never think to bring coffee or clean up after co-workers.

Eunsil rose in the company due to her regular attendance at post-work dinners and other unpaid meetings. She also took only one month of maternity leave. When she became a manager, she instituted a year of paid maternity and paternity leave. However, the first woman to take a full year of leave later resigned due to the incompatibility of her work and home schedules.

Jiyoung likes her job and her colleagues but is disturbed by the way she is treated by male clients. They harass her under the guise of joking and teasing much as did the boys in her school. If she laughs, they are encouraged; if she doesn’t laugh, they are offended.

At a business lunch, for instance, a male client makes a misogynistic joke at her expense. Later, at a dinner, Jiyoung is forced to sit next to a drunken division leader from the client company. He makes numerous lewd comments about her and pushes drinks on her until she is drunk. She leaves the restaurant and passes out at a nearby convenience store. When her boyfriend calls, a male colleague, who is attempting to help her home, answers her phone. Her boyfriend is angered by this. They later get into a fight about it and break up. They had already been growing distant since she began her new job.

Jiyoung’s company announces the creation of a planning team to seek new clients. Jiyoung tells her team leader that she wants to be on the planning team. She is not selected for the project. Two male colleagues, who started at the same time as Jiyoung, are assigned to the team. The group of new employees used to be close, but now they drift apart. Their encounters at work are strained and awkward.

The colleagues decide to go out drinking one night. Jiyoung learns that the new planning team was hand-selected by the head of the company. He chose only men because it is a long-term project; he doesn’t consider women to be reliable because of the possibility of pregnancy. She also learns the two men have been paid more than her from the beginning. The novel relates that Korea has the highest gender pay gap of any OECD company and is ranked the worst country for working women by The Economist.