Three years ago Ms. K divorced her husband, who now has custody of their five-year-old son. Back to being “single” again, she recently joined a dating and marriage service and made a decision to re-marry. At first she was worried that she would not meet a potential partner. But now she has numerous men waiting patiently for a chance to meet her. Surprisingly, over half of the hopefuls are singles – and have never been married.

Ms. K, a 33-year-old pediatrician, wants to meet someone who has already experienced the joys and sorrows of a married life, or someone who knows that it takes work to live as a happily married couple. For her, when one partner has been previously married but the other has not, the couple’s experiences and thoughts are too widely divergent to produce a harmonious relationship.

In a change from the past, previously married women have become a fashionable option for single men seeking marriage partners. Women who were previously married have a high value these days – that is, they are strongly sought after by men.

According to a report by the Korean Ministry of Statistics issued last year, the rate of remarried women was higher (20.4 percent) than remarried men (18.2 percent). Most of these women, the report said, had remarried with single men who had never been married.

From 1994 to 2004, the report added, the rate of remarried women almost doubled and the rate for marriages between single, never-been married women with divorced men increased.

A generation ago, the focus of discussion was a woman’s marital status, her virginity and her past. Divorced women were essentially scorned. A virgin was the ideal marriage partner. Now, however, things have changed.

Instead, women who have the experience that comes from marriage are seen as a boon to a flexible, harmonious marriage life. They can also physically satisfy their partners more readily than inexperienced, and perhaps reticent, first-time newlyweds. Remarried women tend to have financial freedom and power, often evidenced in their social positions.

In the Korean community, marriage and dating services are divided between two categories: previously married and never married. Recently, however, in response to the changing attitudes of single men, the two categories have merged. Men now seek experienced, self-sufficient women who understand how to take care of a man.

The Korean society, in general, is changing its views on divorcees and the extended family now tends to be more accepting of them. Divorced women are met with more sympathy than in the past, especially when children are involved.

The strongest promoters of changing views in Korean society on previously married women are the women themselves.

Generally, previously married women seem to deal with their lives better than previously married men. They seem more able to control and manage their families, their careers, their relationships with people, and even their bodies. Remarried women manage to maintain good health and attractive physiques – unlike remarried men, who often grow quite heavy. Remarried women exhibit an average weight of 50.4 kg, compared with 50.2 kg for unmarried women. Such weight control suggests that remarried women are working hard at maintaining their health, belying the myth that women get fatter as they become older.

Yet this new understanding has not yet fully influenced the Korean society where marriage and dating services still report that divorced women without financial stability, or with children, are finding partners at a lower rate than their financially independent counterparts. Korean men still retain the tradition-bound desire to biologically father their own children.

However, on the whole, the changes in Korean society towards divorced women are amazing. Divorce is no longer viewed as a failure in life but rather as an opportunity to prepare for a better life, making use of the experiences gained the past.