According to a 2017 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the gender pay gap in South Korea is the largest among its 37 member countries. Working women earn almost 40% less than men and many stop working when they have children, often under pressure from their families and workplaces.
Other countries in the region, including Japan – which also has an aging population and a low birth rate – have wide gender disparities, especially in relation to pregnancy. In Japan, the term “matahara” (short for maternal harassment) became popular when a woman’s allegations of bullying in the workplace after childbirth were heard in the country’s Supreme Court in 2014.
These declining populations pose a threat to countries’ economies, making it all the more important that governments be careful when encouraging women to have children.
Last year, South Korea’s population declined for the first time, dropping to almost 21,000. Births fell by more than 10.5% and deaths increased by 3%. The Ministry of Interior and Security acknowledged the alarming implications, saying that “amid the rapid decline in the birth rate, the government needs to make fundamental changes to its relevant policies”.
Although the Seoul government may have fumbled on its board, the reaction, some said, proved that attitudes were changing.
“This is just outdated advice,” said Adele Vitale, a doula by birth and an Italian expat who lived in Busan, a port city on the country’s southeastern coast, for a decade.
Vitale, who works mainly with foreign women married to Korean men, said that while Korean society has traditionally considered pregnant women “disabled”, it has increasingly seen its husbands adopting more egalitarian views on childbirth and child rearing. children.
“Family dynamics are evolving,” she said. “Women don’t want to be treated that way anymore.”