According to the Confucian principles which were brought to apply to the
indigenous family system men were superior to women, who were expected
to attend to their every need. Marriages were arranged by relatives according to the appropriateness of background and social status, and love
between husbands and wives was thought to be inconsistent with the filial
piety which demanded that attention be paid to the needs of elders and
children before those of a spouse. For men, affairs outside the home were
not only accepted, but also even expected, whereas until 1908 a woman
could be killed with impunity by a husband who discovered her in an
adulterous act. A woman was taught that her chief duty in life was obedience, first to her father, then to her husband and his parents, and finally, when widowed, to her son