As colonial Korea transitioned to capitalism, intellectuals embraced the idea of gender equality as well as equality among economic classes and ethnicities (Koreans, Japanese and Westerners). On the one hand, colonial intellectuals promoted women’s education and kinship system reforms. On the other, canonical works of Korean literature from the early 20th century remasculinized colonized men through portrayals of violence against women. How did colonial literature reconcile the modern imperative of equality with the new inequalities that capitalism produced?