For Korean women: better days, still unequal

Korea has continued to develop its culture into a more democratic society and advanced, high-tech economy. For purposes of this column, a democratic society is one where life chances and opportunities are equal for women and men. The equalizing face of Korea is mixed with elements of an authoritarian past, Confucianism and other value streams. While there is a ministry for gender equality, needed reforms are sparse. There is growing individualization of Korean women’s thinking and living, by young and old alike. The picture is one of a better context for women, but still unequal.

Korean women enjoy a longer life expectancy than 50 years ago, and they tend to live longer than men. Georank indicates life expectancy has risen from 17.5 years to 87.5 years for women and from 22.2 years to 86.1 years for men since 1950. There can be no doubt that the advance of Korean society from the era of the Korean War has been impressive.

However, along with living longer, many Korean women live alone. The demise of extended family households sees a higher percentage of Korean women living by themselves, and not just as elderly women. The largest segment of households in Korea today is single households. A great many of those are young people, including young women.

Korean women today, by choice and by virtue of longevity, have greater independence in the household, at the beginning of adult life and at the end. This expectancy creates the possibility of exercising more autonomy over major life choices. For example, many younger Korean women delay marriage to finish university or work in a career. And many Korean divorces today are among older women, though they have declined from COVID 19-era highs. Seoul Economic Daily reported that “grey divorces” outnumber those of younger adults.

Women exhibit the legal and socially recognized ability to make more independent decisions. They marry later and have fewer children. Women may keep their names in the family registers. While childbirth rates and marriage rates have increased in recent years, as reported in The Korea Times, the country still is not replacing population at anything like an equal rate. This will reinforce the relative individuation of Korean individual identity.

The situation as to work also remains improving but unequal. Women who have higher educational attainments fare better than most women workers when it comes to wages and salary. Many middle-aged women are underpaid and face last-in, first-out types of scenarios in the workforce. A gender pay report by The Korea Times last year identified an overall gender pay gap of 30 percent with higher rates in wholesale and retail trade, construction, information and communications. Many variables account for the disparities according to economic sector and employment levels. Women who now tend to be alone for more of their lives must consider the inequality of pay for their labor and time.

Women in the household continue to perform more childcare and household work than do their male counterparts. Despite the growth in number of men who are full-time homemakers, Korea’s economy and society remain male-dominated. The social expectation for a woman to marry a man who provides, i.e. the breadwinner, remains as a valued ideal. Nonetheless, more women and men are working with levels exceeding 60 and 70 percent respectively.

Intergenerational pressure is no longer so much a matter of fealty to a husband’s in-laws. The pressures for those in urban areas arise from competing to secure favored spots in prep schools, elite universities and international opportunities. This is competition between families. There is no idea here of only boys attending university. Middle-class housewives and their sisters have more expenses to secure the best extracurricular activities and tuition for private academic institutions for their daughters and sons.

Are Korean women becoming more individualistic? There is some warrant to an affirmative answer, but it’s likely the reality is even more complex. The culture and society of Korea aren’t premised on Euroamerican liberalism and individual rights. While there are aspects of rights and a growing sense of autonomy, women in Korea also represent their identities in a culture based on a greater toleration for authority, beginning with fathers and mothers, elders and teachers. As a result, their movement away from inequality will continue to resemble those of women in Europe and America only to some extent.

I should hazard the conclusion that conditions today are improving for women, though we have covered only some of the relevant variables. In my next column, we’ll discuss further important aspects of the context for equality by gender in Korea today.

Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is professor of Political Science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of The Korea Foundation and a past visiting professor at the Hanyang University Graduate School of Public Administration.