Family Futures

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nsuring

ork

-F

amily

alance

still performed by women. As for cooking and household

chores, 55.4 per cent of the respondents answered “more work

done by wife” while 26.6 per cent said “mostly wife.” For

childcare responsibilities, 64.8 per cent said “more work done

by wife” while 16 per cent said “mostly wife,” confirming the

reality women are facing in family life.

Creating ‘Career Success Korea’

As it can be inferred from the above discussion, not only has

Korean society experienced a large increase in the demand

for work-family reconciliation over the past 20 years, but the

efforts and determination of the Korean Government to estab-

lish and implement supporting policies have also developed

significantly. The Government now faces the challenges of

identifying the missing links of the past and further improving

its work-family reconciliation policy.

Firstly, it is necessary to remove the visible and invis-

ible obstacles of women’s labour participation so that women

can work without career interruption due to childbirth and

child-rearing. In accordance with this context, President Park

Geun-hye announced on 6 January 2014 that the problem of

career interruption for women is regarded as the top agenda in

her administration’s Three-Year Economic Innovation Plan, and

measures will be devised to correct the situation. Korean society

will have to commit multidimensional efforts to creating a ‘Career

Success Korea’ which enables women to work continuously

without career interruption due to childcare and family respon-

sibilities. In fact, the economic activities of women show large

fluctuations by age group. In particular, women aged 30-44 (a

period mainly devoted to raising children) were found to have

the lowest participation rate in economic activities. More family-

friendly policies are needed to encourage women to use maternity

and parental leaves and to receive childcare service support, in

order to enable them to work without career interruption.

Secondly, efforts are required to reduce the burden of

childcare, which is noted as the largest obstacle in women’s

employment. Childcare support demands a comprehensive

support system according to children’s age from infancy to

primary school. Therefore, after-school childcare services

should be further expanded to support working parents, coor-

dinating with the work-life balance policy scheme.

Thirdly, there should also be efforts within the family to

share domestic work and childcare responsibilities more equally

between men and women. Recently, it has become important to

balance work and family time as the value of family is increas-

ingly emphasized. Such changes have led to greater policy

interest in enabling men and women to reconcile their work and

family life in Korea, demonstrated in the development of the

work-family reconciliation policy. Korea should lessen the risks

of women experiencing difficulties in balancing work and family

life and postponing childbirth in fear of career interruption. Such

change is aligned with the recent emphasis on equal parenthood

in Korean society. Korea should make every effort to support

working parents, especially by employing more parental leaves,

so that child-rearing and family responsibilities as well as work

responsibilities will apply equally to men and women.

Lastly, changes are called for in the work environment and

culture. In particular, there is a need to improve the culture of long

working hours that is deeply rooted in Korean society. In 2010

the Economic and Social Development Commission, consisting

of representatives from labour, management and the Government,

announced the Tripartite Agreement to Improve the Practice of

LongWorking Hours. This agreement upholds a plan to gradually

reduce yearly work hours and to expand job creation and diversi-

fication. As family structures and society needs constantly change,

corporate work culture changes are imperative.

Gender division of labour in the family

A survey of 800 Koreans (percentage in brackets)

Source: Hong, et al (2009)

Mostly husband More work by husband

Equally share More work by wife

Mostly wife

Cooking/domestic work

3 (0.4)

37 (4.6)

104 (13.0)

443 (55.4)

213 (26.6)

Childcare

4 (0.5)

13 (1.6)

137 (17.1)

518 (64.8)

128 (16.0)

400

200

600

2008

2009

2010

2011

157

2012

253

2013

522

Family-friendly company certification

Source: Ministry of Gender Equality and Family