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By Yoon Ja-young
Staff reporter
It seems that husbands here want their wives to be a superwoman. They want their wives to have a job to double the family income, but they are reluctant to share doing the housework, statistics showed.
According to Statistics Korea, a growing number of husbands here want a working wife. The ratio of husbands who want wives to work recorded 81.5 percent last year, surging from 65.3 percent three years ago.
Double income households made an average 2.9 million won ($2,000) a month last year, while single income households made 1.9 million won.
Despite the wives' contribution to the household income, their husbands were not helping much with the housework. While working wives spent on average three hours and 20 minutes a day on housework and taking care of the family, their spouses dedicated only 37 minutes.
They were especially not helpful with childcare. Only 1.6 percent of husbands in double income households said they helped children with meals or getting dressed, and only 2.4 percent said they took care of the children when they were sick.
When asked how they spent their free time on weekends or holidays, watching TV and videos topped the list for males, at 34.6 percent. In case of females, however, 31.9 percent said they spent their free time doing housework.
The inequality led females to have negative ideas about getting married. While eight out of 10 married males said marriage is a must, only six out of ten females said the same. 71.7 percent of husbands said divorce should never be an option, while 58.6 percent of wives were negative about it.
While seven out of 10 husbands said they were satisfied with their spouses, the ratio of happy wives was lower at 60.8 percent. The ratio tends to fall as the couple ages. 71.4 percent of wives in their 30s or younger were happy with their husbands, while the ratio fell to 50.8 percent among females in their 60s or older.
However, Koreans were generally positive about marriage. 58.5 percent of Koreans said married people are happier than singles, while only 15.7 percent agreed in Sweden, 24.8 percent in Spain, and 35.6 percent in Japan.
Korean wives were decision makers regarding the education of their children or managing the household budget, with six out of ten couples leaving these details to their wives.
Korean men were on average 31.6 years old when they got married for the first time, 2.5 years older than a decade ago. Brides, meanwhile, were 28.7 years old.
The number of divorces totaled 124,000 last year. The ratio of couples who had been married for over 20 years before getting divorced were 13.5 percent of divorces in 1999, but the ratio of such long-time couples took 22.8 percent of the total number of splits last year.
As high as 72.4 percent of couples had their first child within two years of marriage. One out of four wives had an abortion, with the ratio falling to half compared with 1991.
When asked how they were preparing for life after retirement, 42.7 percent of males answered the National Pension. In the case of females, meanwhile, 31.3 said they were relying on deposits and 25.6 percent mentioned private pensions.
