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| Over 40 percent of mothers quit their career for childcare, a study showed, Tuesday. Korea Times file |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Four out of 10 women with children aged under six had to quit their jobs as they had difficulty pursuing both their career and childcare, a recent study shows.
According to the study by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, which surveyed 2,533 households with children of the age group nationwide in 2018, 40.3 percent of mothers had to quit their jobs for childbirth or childcare.
Only 0.3 percent of fathers surveyed quit their jobs for the same reason.
The ratio of women being forced to leave the workforce for childcare has been on the rise in recent years, from 24.6 percent in 2009 to 25.2 percent in 2012 and 32.3 percent in 2015.
For the reason why they left their career, 32.8 percent said they had no person or facility reliable enough to take care of their children, while 31.2 percent said they thought childcare is more important than work. Another 21.4 percent said they could not either work or take care of their children properly while maintaining both, and 6.4 percent said they had to spend too much money on hiring a babysitter.
People in small towns and mid-sized cities particularly found it difficult to find a reliable person or facility to take care of their children.
Among those who quit their jobs, the largest number of the mothers or 66.2 percent said they did so after being pregnant with their first child.
The study also found 26 percent of the female respondents have taken maternity leave, while only 1.1 percent of males have taken paternity leave.
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