During the Koryo and Choson periods, more and more ordinary women were ordained, some for secular reasons and others for philosophical reasons. Some were ordained simply to spend their lives praying for their dead fathers; some were forced to be ordained by the fathers, for they had no money for their daughters to get married; wives and daughters of rebels were also ordained or became lifelong servants.

During the late Koryo period, as temples accumulated wealth with the help of kings, the Sangha became corrupted. The Bhikkuni Sangha was also spoilt and the temples concentrated on producing various goods such as hemp cloth and so became rich and lacking in concentrated practice as they spent more and more time on providing goods.

The Choson Period was the worst time for women. During that period, a woman was more concerned with preserving her chastity than with saving her life. When a woman remarried, her children badly treated and could not rise in the world. At times, women as well as men were prohibited from ordaining by government order and many young bhikkunis were forced to disrobe. As a result, only ordinary women who had run upon hard times seem to have been able to become bhikkunis. The consequence of this movement was that the status of bhikkunis in society became lower and lower. Besides, the severe social rules that were kept at that time prohibited them from doing anything to improve their lot.

When Korea was colonized by Japan in 1910, the Choson law which had prohibited bhikkus and bhikkunis from entering the capital for most of 500 years, was revoked and so the Sangha was able to regain some of its freedom of movement and outlook. Buddhism was used by the Japanese in their aggression and thus became heavily influenced by the Japanese style. In this way the Sangha which had been centered around celibate ordained members, was forced to change into one of married monks; because of this the bhikkunis lost their independence. They could only continue to exist by staying near bhikkus, who, having been driven out of their temples in towns and cities, were forced to live in the high mountains, far from civilization.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the western movement of emancipating women influenced Korean society enormously. In addition, women also joined the movement for Korean Independence on an equal footing with men. After independence, as democracy became more imminent, women acquired a better status than that of the Choson Period. These social changes were reflected in the Bhikkuni Sangha. Educated women again started to be ordained and the bhikkunis joined the bhikkus in the Sangha purification movement. At that time, the celibate Sangha fought against the married monks and the bhikkus and bhikkunis were comrades in a common struggle. Now, the number of women being ordained is far greater and their level of education far higher than earlier on in the century. The increase in women seeking ordination was possibly initially due to the mass of female orphans from the Korean War in 1950 and the baby boom after the war.

Whatever the reason, the trend continues and today as many women seek ordination as men, sometimes more. The increase in more educated women coming to the temples may be due to the fact that bhikkunis are very well supported and now run beautiful temples, whereas before they had to spend time repairing old temples to make a place to live. Also, today, the value of education has been accepted. With the general improvement in educational level, women have come more into contact with Buddhism due to the presence of temples and centers in the cities, on university campuses and in society as a whole.

These days much time and effort is spent in order to carefully train women who wish to become bhikkunis. They are sent to university and many even go abroad to study. Now there are even bhikkuni professors and teachers.