Why do women stop working?

By Jason Lim

According to most studies, around 70 percent of Korean women aged between 25 and 29 are part of the workforce. This number drops precipitously to 55 percent when women reach their 30s, and rises only slightly for those in their 40s and older.

According to OECD, Korea registers a 55.2 percent economic participation rate for women, compared to Japan’s 63.4 percent and the U.S.’ 67.6 percent. This means that Korea is missing out on the production potential of about half of its female population, not to mention the diversity of perspectives, insights and other intangibles that can positively drive a workplace.

This is a huge loss that will not be sustainable, especially in a country that suffers from a chronically low birthrate overall. For Korea to sustain its success, it must utilize all the human resources it has.

At a Cabinet meeting in January, President Park Geun-hye said, “Making a Korea that does not have a woman suffering from an interruption of her career due to child-bearing and rearing should become our goal.” Her Cabinet responded to her challenge by recently announcing a series of policies aimed to stop the exodus of women from the workplace, and facilitate re-entry for those women who have left.

Essentially, the policy prescribed more flexibility in leave-taking for parents for child-rearing, with added financial incentives for fathers to also take some time off. Whether the policy is effective on the workplace frontlines remains to be seen, but the move at least seems well-intentioned.

But if more parental leave flexibility and support payments are the solution, then what is the problem? Or, to be more accurate, if the problem is women in their 30s leaving the workforce en masse, then what is the cause of that exodus?

Obviously, in the current narrative, the foundational assumption is that getting married and having babies is the primary cause. But is this really true? Is it really marriages and babies that are driving the vast majority of women out of the workplace?

I am not saying that it’s not, but I think it’s always useful to examine assumptions when trying to prescribe a policy that is supposed to address a visible phenomenon, especially when that assumption is taken at face value and goes unchallenged by anyone. And especially when that assumption feeds into a narrative that seems to actually point the finger at women since it’s “inevitable” that they quit work when they get married and have kids.

The whole prescriptive approach seems to be addressing a special, disabling “condition” that married and/or pregnant women face by creating privileged legal and regulatory spaces to alleviate the condition. It almost treats marriage and pregnancy as a form of disability that has to be alleviated through regulations by giving it special considerations.

But what if we shift the perspective a bit? What if the problem is not that women are getting married and having babies, but that the overall professional climate is the problem?

Lee So-young, a 35-year old former professional, was quoted as saying, “It was nearly impossible for me both physically and mentally to compete with male colleagues during pregnancy in a business environment that gives more promotion opportunities to those who work longer hours and are good at entertaining bosses at company dinners.”

What I want to ask is can a woman who’s not pregnant compete with her male colleagues in such an environment? Can a young, ambitious woman join her mostly male supervisors and colleagues for dinner and multiple rounds of bar hopping every night and be “one of the guys?” Can a woman join her male colleagues in a room salon with other women pouring drinks and fawning over them in sexually explicit ways? Can a woman go off to a drunken, sexual tryst with one of serving women with a wink and smile, along with other members of her team? And if this is how bonds are forged, impressions are created, reputations built, opportunities are offered, and decisions are made, can any woman compete, pregnant or not?

Perhaps it’s not the pregnancy that driving women out of the workplace. Could it be that they are left out of the “old boys’ club” and are not presented with the same opportunities to develop and advance? So, when they leave because they are excluded from a viable career path (with many getting married and having babies), would a policy of parental leave flexibility and financial incentives work?

How about the men? If men are also expected to participate in such a workplace culture to advance and be one of the boys, how could they possibly contribute to child-rearing, no matter how much the government tells them that it’s OK. They will be either working or drunk, or recovering from being overworked or drunk.

And if this really is about corporate culture rather than women not being able to juggle career and babies, then is the government solving the right problem?

Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. He can be reached at jasonlim@msn.com, facebook.com/jasonlimkoreatimes and @jasonlim2012.