The breakdown of the public distribution system in North Korea and the famine of the 1990s made way for citizen-led grassroots marketization as a means of survival. A confluence of several factors including the skewed ratio of males in official jobs, the state-sanctioned role of women as housewives and mothers, mandatory military service for males and the predominance of females in the light industry and service sectors allowed women greater opportunity to participate in this burgeoning market economy. An understudied aspect of this new phenomenon is if regional discrepancies in North Korea affect the role of women in the markets. While large regional socioeconomic differences do exist in North Korea, previous studies only used haphazard samples of refugees who were coming primarily from the Northeastern province close to China. Through semi-structured, open-ended oral history interviews with five female refugees coming from different regions of North Korea, this study paid special attention to women who witnessed changes in several provinces, including the capital. The findings here are that while some disparities certainly exist across regions, the urban/rural gap is more pronounced. This study also confirmed that despite being "double victims" of both state marginalization and social discrimination, North Korean women are now the primary breadwinners for the nuclear family. challenging the traditional gender roles as a result of this nationwide market participation.