Ewha Womans University traces its origin to Ewha Hakdang, a school for women begun in Jeong-dong in 1886 by American missionary Mary Scranton. Classes began with one student. In a society where institutional education outside the family was unfamiliar and often resisted for women, the school opened routes into literacy, foreign languages, teaching, and professional life.
Pear blossom became a symbol of modern women’s education
King Gojong is said to have bestowed the name Ewha Hakdang; ewha means pear blossom and remains in the emblem and imagery. But a beautiful symbol can obscure the work of persuading families, training teachers, and widening women’s public participation.
Read missionary education without a single verdict
The early school combined Christian mission and Western-style education. It expanded opportunity while carrying the cultural tensions and assumptions of Western mission in an imperial age. Avoid both the heroic claim that foreigners simply saved Korean women and the opposite claim of pure cultural intrusion; examine Korean students’ and teachers’ choices.
Today’s university is not the original school enlarged
Ewha now includes many disciplines, graduate programs, research institutes, and medical institutions. Do not reenact current students through photographs of hanbok-clad pupils or treat a women’s university as exotic. Learning rights and privacy come first.