Working women’s ratio dips below 50 percent

By Oh Young-jin

Staff reporter

The portion of working women against the economically- active female population dipped below 50 percent for the first time since 2004.

The ratio of girls going to college surpassed that of boys for the first time last year.

There is also a wide gap between women in their 20s and those in the age group of their mothers, namely in their 50s, regarding marriage.

These findings were made by Statistics Korea in its report for Women’s Week.

The report said that about 82.4 percent of female high school seniors entered college last year, compared with 81.6 percent for their male counterparts last year.

In the 1999 comparison, boys outstripped girls in entering colleges 69.2 percent to 63.9 percent.

Despite the high-level of eagerness for education shown by women, the ratio of working women has been slowly decreasing. Last year’s ratio of 49.2 percent is a slight drop from the 50.1 percent, the highest point posted in 2005.

By age, those in their late 20s were the highest with 69 percent working but those between 30 and 34, the age group bearing the brunt of child rearing, saw their ratio drastically fall to 51.9 percent.

The ratio went up to 56.3 percent for ages 35 to 39 and 65 percent for ages 40 to 44.

Of the working women, temporary workers accounted for about 40 percent. For women, their ratios stood at 23 percent.

Regarding marriage, there appears to be considerable differences between young and old women.

For those above 50 in age, about 37 percent believe that women must get married, while only a mere 10 percent in their 20s and 30s agree.

About 43 percent of young women are taking a more “cavalier attitude” toward marriage, saying that they will marry if they can but it is not an indispensable goal in their life.

On the other side of the coin, about 31 percent of those in their 50s think that under no circumstances should divorce be allowed with an additional 14 percent saying that divorce should take place under certain conditions.

Nearly half of the young groups say they don’t see it as a taboo. Meanwhile, women accounted for 49.8 percent of the entire population or about 24.33 million last year.

Those above 60 were tallied at 4.29 million, about 30 percent more than men in the same age group.

모녀간 세대 차 심해

여성 경제활동 인구 중 일하는 여성이 2004년 이 후 처음으로 50% 이하로 떨어졌다.

일요일 통계청이 여성 주간을 맞아 낸 보고서에 따르면, 결혼에 대해 20-30대 여성과 이들 어머니 세대와 큰 차이를 보인 것으로 나타났다.

이 보고서는 여고 3년생 83.4 %가 지난 해 대학에 진학, 사상 처음으로 남학생 진학율 81.6%을 넘어섰다.