It was only in the 1960s, when work in factories became widely available, that factory jobs came to be considered respectable for young women. In traditional Korean society, young women were considered to need moral supervision, and few opportunities existed for them to work outside their homes. High-status families closely supervised their daughters in preparation for marriage, and in-laws controlled the daily lives of young wives. On the other hand, poorer families often coped with the burden of supporting adolescent daughters by sending them to work as housemaids for wealthy families. Even more important than the money that housemaids earned was the preservation of their reputations, and households that employed housemaids were also charged with supervising them to ensure their good reputations. Housemaids were usually rural girls who worked for a few years before leaving to get married, and their employers were often distant relatives, acting as patrons as well as employers.

When the South Korean government began its drive for export-led industrialization, factory jobs were seen as less suitable for young women than jobs as housemaids. Young women and their parents worried that factory settings were coarse and unstructured, whereas they believed that jobs as housemaids protected young women and prepared them for their future domestic roles. People felt that inadequately supervised young women in factories were susceptible to bad influences and in danger of becoming morally loose. And women were reluctant to work for factories because they were worried about their reputations and about how their marriage prospects would be affected.