The Korea Times Global Business Club’s 2026 forum, held Tuesday at the Seoul Global Center, took up a subject rarely foregrounded in contemporary debate: “jokbo,” Korea’s traditional genealogical records. Its theme — “Korea’s Jokbo, Women’s Jokbo: Not just Grandfathers, but Grandmothers too” — had a clear focus and a timely challenge at its heart: How can a system long structured around male lineage be reimagined so that women are fully and meaningfully inscribed into family histories? “Many people associate the word ‘jokbo’ with something outdated. It can seem like a relic detached from modern life. But I see it differently. The jokbo is not merely a record of the past; it is a living history closely tied to who we are today,” Oh Young-jin, president-publisher of The Korea Times, said in his welcoming remarks. If genealogies serve as mirrors of the social values and hierarchies of their time, he continued, then important questions follow. Within these records, shaped through a male-centered lens, how have women been represented? And in an era striving toward