Post: The issue of Women
To Work or Not to Work?
In South Korea, women, despite everything, give birth and take a career break for the sake of their children.
One out of six married Korean women leaves her job – either temporarily or permanently – due to pregnancy or to raise children. Note the emphasis on "married," though. In absolute numbers, the count of Korean women aged 15-54 not currently working stands at around 1.35 million, which is approximately 17% of the 7.94 million married women in this age group.
Among them, 42% cite the need to spend more time with their children as the reason for leaving work. 26% point to the obvious necessity of caring for their husbands, or more precisely, marriage, as the primary reason for leaving their jobs. 23% cite pregnancy and childbirth, and 4% mention child education.
The number of working mothers with children under 18 is 2.6 million, and their employment rate is 60%.
This statistics does not represent all Korean women; after all, Korea constantly sets its own record for the number of children per woman of childbearing age, currently standing at 0.7.
Korean women are also not keen on getting married: only 58.4% of the 15-54 age cohort are married.