In traditional Korean society, women received little formal education. Christian missionaries began establishing schools for girls during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ehwa Woman's University, the most prestigious women's institution, began as a primary school established by Methodist missionaries in 1886 and achieved university status after 1945.

Loc:Changing Role of Women

Iron ore of excellent quality is mined; and there are copper mines in several places. The output of the silver mines is very small, but the customs returns for 1886 show the value of gold exported that year to be $503,296. the principal industries are the manufacture of paper, mats woven of grass, split bamboo blinds, oil paper, and silk. The total value of the foreign imports in 1887 was $2,300,000, two-thirds representing cotton goods; the native exports reached about $700,000, chiefly beans and cow hides. The foreign vessels entering the treaty ports yearly number about seven hundred and fifty, of some two hundred thousand tons burden. Three-fourths of the trade is with Japan and more than one-fifth with China; British goods go by way of these countries. Until 1888 business was done chiefly by barter, imports being exchanged largely for gold dust, and Japanese silk piece goods being a current exchange for trade inland. In that year the mint at Seoul was completed, and a beneficial effect on commerce resulted from the introductin of a convenient and sufficient coinage. Seoul is connected by telegraph with Taku, Port Arthur, Chemulpo, Gensan, and Fusan.

Glimpses of the Orient: Geography, Government, Climate and Products of Corea