In Seoul, expat spouses rewrite story of identity, purpose, community, led by growing women's network
On a weekday morning in Seoul, a group of women introduced themselves in a mix of accents: Indian, Danish, French, American, German and more. Some wheeled strollers. Others arrived straight from school drop-off.
Nearly all of them, at some point in their lives, had been the person at the center of a meeting room, a project or a team.
In South Korea, many now find themselves identified first as something else: someone’s mother or someone's wife -- an "expat spouse.”
One of them is 43-year-old Yolekha Mallier, who arrived in Seoul from Seattle two years ago. With two young children, she carried with her a decadelong career leading product teams at Amazon. She always had a certainty that work — meaningful, stimulating work — would anchor her identity.
The move had been her family’s choice for a global adventure, a safer city and an experience they wanted their children to have.
But as her husband stepped into an office full of colleagues, projects and structure, she found herself al
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