By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Young students are conservative in their views on gender roles, often copycatting their fathers’ viewpoint.
The Korea Legal Aid Center for Family Relations surveyed 247 students, composed of 100 elementary school students and 147 middle and high school students, in May and found that they stuck to the patriarchal system.
For instance, their viewpoint was evident about what roles husbands and wives should play in the family.
By gender, elementary schoolboys agreed more strongly than girls with the view that husbands should work and be responsible for the household financially and that men and women have different natural abilities.
Even female students who opt for more gender equality in the family were less assertive when asked who should be the breadwinner in the household.
Han Joo-hee, a female first grader at Chungshin Girls’ Middle School in Seoul, said women should be in charge of finances in a household. “I agree that males should be the breadwinner, but females should work, too,” Han said. “That’s more efficient and economic.”
Han said she wanted to be a career woman when she grows up. “Males and females should do the housework together as well being economically responsible together.”
Male students said they wouldn’t mind having wives who work and contribute financially to the household but thought that men should be in charge of making important decisions.
Park So-hyun, the center’s consultant, said it was hard to settle matters through conversation when men and women have large gaps between their gender role recognition. “Schools should provide counseling to encourage a sense of gender equality in students,” Park said.