I wasn’t sure what to make of South Korea’s central bank’s decision to place a woman on its banknote. This is the first time South Koreans will carry money with a woman’s face on it so this is a good thing, right?

Well, the move is mired in controversy and not the good kind. Women’s rights groups are protesting the fact the central bank chose Shin Saimdang, an artist, but largely stay-at-home mother to a famous Confucian scholar, rather than someone who broke the glass ceiling in the male-dominated financial world. From Reuters:

A paper on a government Web site describes Shin as "the best example of motherhood in Korean history," while the central bank said she was selected "to promote gender equality and women's participation in society."

Women's rights groups acknowledge Shin as an important figure but have been pushing for other female candidates, who have risen to positions of power and respect in a male-dominated society, to be placed on the new note.

"Although women nowadays are highly capable and educated, the idea of 'wise mother and good wife' holds them down," said Kwon Hee-jung, secretary general of the women's rights group IF…

(Shin’s son) Yulgok's face is already on the 5,000 won note. Shin will appear on the second-highest valued note after the new 100,000 bill is also issued in 2009.

Salon’s Tracy Clark-Flory is right that this is a no-win situation.

It's hard to argue that featuring a famed figure of motherhood on a banknote is sexist and insulting without seeming to sneer at mothers' role in society. It's also hard to celebrate this historic tribute to motherly influence without diminishing other women's climbs to public power in male-dominated South Korea.