Lee Tai-young
Lee Tai-young, also spelled Yi T'ai Yŏng, was Korea's first female lawyer . She was also the founder of the country's first legal aide centre. She fought for women's rights all through her career. Her often mentioned refrain was, "No society can or will prosper without the cooperation of women." Her dedication to law also got her the epithet "the woman judge."
Certain resources have misidentified Lee as the first female judge in Korea's history. The first Korean woman to become a judge was Hwang Yun-suk in 1954. While Lee had sought a judicial appointment around 1954, she was denied a judgeship due to political reasons. She eventually became a judge later in her legal career.
Early years
Lee Tai-young was born on 10 August 1914 in Pukjin, Unsan County, Korea, Empire of Japan. She was a third-generation Methodist. Her father was a gold miner; her mother was named Kim Heung-Won. Most girl's parents taught girls how to work, but her parents thought that girls need to study, so she went to school with other boys. Her maternal grandfather founded the Methodist Church in Lee's hometown. After completing school in Pukjin, she studied at Chung Eui Girls' High School in Pyongyang. She attended Ewha Womans University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in home economics before marrying the Methodist minister, Yil Hyung Chyung, in 1936. He was suspected of being a spy for the United States in the 1940s and was imprisoned as "anti-Japanese". He later became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea. Tai-young lived in a patriarchal society and she had four children, three daughters and a son.Career
Initially, when she came to Seoul to study at Ewha Womans University, her wish was to become a lawyer. However, her husband was imprisoned for sedition in the 1940s by the Japanese colonial government. Lee then had to work as a school teacher and radio singer, and took in sewing and washing in the early 1940s to maintain her family. After World War II, encouraged by her husband, she continued her studies. In 1946, she became the first woman to enter Seoul National University, earning her law degree three years later. In 1957, after the Korean War she opened a law practice, Women's Legal Counseling Center, which provided services to poor women. In 1952, she was the first woman to pass the National Judicial Examination.Lee and her husband participated in the 1976, which called for the return of civil liberties to South Korean citizens. Considered an enemy of President Park Chung Hee because of her political views, she was arrested, receiving in 1977 a three-year suspended sentence, a loss of civil liberties, and an automatic disbarment for ten years. Her law practice became the Korea Legal Aid Center for Family Relations, serving more than 10,000 clients each year.
There are two English-language biographies of Lee, David Finkelstein's Korea's 'Quiet' Revolutionary: A Profile of Lee Tai-young and Sonia Reid Strawn's Where There is No Path: Lee Tai-Young, Her Story.