based character of the organization into a labor union that can organize women workers more extensively, and promote a mass-based movement for women workers. With these resolutions as basis, the Korean Women’s Trade Union(KWTU) was launched on August 29, 1999. As an organization open to any woman worker regardless of occupation or regional location, KWTU sought to protect the rights of women workers, most of whom were in small businesses or irregular employment—and repeating the cycle of employment and unemployment based on marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing. At the same time, KWTU also aimed to overcome the limitations of existing union activities that failed to encourage active participation by women because of the continuing conservatism of male union leaders and the ongoing pattern of union activities that privileged large factories, male workers, and regular employees. Over the last 8 years since the launch, KWTU has worked tirelessly to organize and strengthen unorganized and irregularly employed women workers. KWTU began with 450 members at first, and has now grown to 10 regional branches and over 70 industrial units including over 6,000 members. Since the launch of KWTU, KWWA and KWTU have implemented joint bylaws and conduct evaluations and project planning on a yearly basis. KWTU has become a model example of a irregular women workers’ union, and has produced many success cases in which women organized themselves and forged their own futures. 5) Establishing the National House Managers Cooperative, an organization of informal women workers In July 2003, KWWA formed the Planning Committee to Promote Social Enterprises for Foundation of National House Cooperative(Seoul, Nov. 2004) Managers Low-income Women. The idea was to expand the decentralized and regionally dispersed Middle-aged and Senior Women’s Homecare Personnel Dispatch Program into a social enterprise for low-income women. With the polarization of the labor market, the majority of middle-aged and older women faced increasing difficulty in finding work, and they were primarily employed in informal sectors including domestic service. KWWA found that intensive professional development efforts could promote financial independence for unemployed and low­income women and decided to