Cho Nam-joo (1978–) is a South Korean novelist. After studying sociology at Ewha Womans University, she worked for about a decade as a television scriptwriter on current-affairs and social-issue programs before beginning her literary career with a prize-winning novel. Her best-known work, “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982,” sold more than one million copies in South Korea and helped expand public debate about gender inequality. Combining the life of an ordinary woman—as daughter, student, employee, wife, and mother—with statistics and news reports, the novel shows how everyday sexism restricts women’s choices in employment, childbirth, and parenting.
