Female collegians say marriage optional

By Lee Kyung-min

Almost half of female university students said marriage was not necessary according to a survey released Tuesday.

One in six also did not want to have a child.

In the survey conducted on 2,361 university students in November, research institute 2.1 Futurian found that 47 percent of female respondents said marriage was optional, while only 23.9 percent of male students agreed.

Both male and female students said they thought the low birthrate was a serious problem in Korea: 82.6 percent and 77.6 percent, respectively.

However, most respondents did not want many children.

They said they wanted 1.9 children on average, which falls short of the birthrate needed to maintain the current population ― 2.1 per household.

Female students wanted an average of 1.77 children, while male students wanted 2.06.

However, 16 percent of the female respondents and 6.4 percent of males said they wanted none at all.

Experts say the responsibilities of marriage and child rearing while working were behind the survey results.

“Young female university students are well aware that they face typical challenges: the difficulty of being successful as a mother and a professional,” said Kim Young-ran, a research fellow at Korean Women’s Development Institute.

“They know that raising children will be hard once they get married. Their responsibilities include helping their children excel in all academic areas, getting them admitted to a good university, and so on,” she added.

“I suppose most men would not think about raising children when they say they want to get married, unlike females,” she said.