Early Western accounts of Korea often portray women as meek, subservient and hidden away from view of all males except their husbands, fathers and brothers. A Korean woman was expected to obey, without deviation, every whim of the males in her life and in some cases to follow them into death. These characterizations of Korean women were made by both male and female foreign observers, and, although there was some truth to them, they were generalizations that did not distinguish between social status, class and location. Not all Korean women were docile; many – especially the royal family – wielded influential power and, according to some observers, manipulated politics.