A new study recently published has shown that one in three women in Seoul are experiencing a widening age gap. This comes after many women reported to have suffered from career disruptions. During the past two decades, South Korea has seen a great change economically, but despite these changes, women are still receiving fewer benefits.
The Korea Herald reported that twice as many women in the capital Seoul experience career disruption than men. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has also carried out reports on the matter, concluding that the wage gap has been steadily increasing. It is not a matter of job opportunity as South Korea has been one of the most thriving economies. The gender roles have played some part in distancing men and women regarding their wages. Although four percent does not seem a drastic gap, it accounts for a large chunk of the population who have had to quit their jobs in order to carry out domestic chores. These chores include house work such as cooking and cleaning which are still more likely to be distributed onto women.
Women in Seoul, aged between twenty-five to twenty-nine, were more likely to be employed out of all the other age groups last year. The ages 35 to 39 had the highest unemployment rate. According to data published in The Korea Herald, childcare and other family responsibilities are most bound upon women between the ages of 35 and 39 in Seoul. Within this specific age group last year only 58.2 percent of women were in work in comparison to 92.8 percent of men who were in employment. 2013 saw men in Seoul earn 1.09 million won more than women per month, the wage gap has been gradually increasing and becoming polarised since 2008.
I spoke to Sieyon Rhee (23) who has been attending Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. She is in her 4th year of University, majoring in Education, and hopes to become a teacher this year. I discovered that the wage difference has no immediate effect on her earnings within the next few years as she is at the age where she is the most employable. She expressed that getting a job is not a problem, but changing the job or ‘climbing the ladder’ is the challenge:
“The problem is not finding the job, you can find a job really quickly. This doesn’t mean you will have a secure job though.”
According to the city government, this is in fact becoming a reality for many women in Seoul. Women in Seoul are increasingly working as contract workers. This means that the job offers come with limited job security which is increasingly making them the economically disadvantaged gender. Nearly twice as many women are on contract positions compared to men.
Rhee, who is entering the working world in Seoul later this year, commented:
“I grew up in Seoul… I go to University in Seoul and what this report suggests, it’s all true actually. My friends are all in the process of getting jobs right now. I’m actually really late. In Korea, women need to get jobs at aged 23 or 24. Even if you are 25, its really late and its harder to get job at 25.
“In companies, [employers think that] women will get pregnant so they don’t want women to be regular workers. I think we have the law but it’s not that powerful.
“My mother is working right now but when I was younger and my brother were younger she quit her job. In Korea the focus on education in huge! You have to make sure your kids are educated properly. Unfortunately this means it’s always the mother who quits the job to feed and educate the kids properly. My mother couldn’t carry on with her job because of our education and all the house work.”
Its not easy to go back to work, she is a pharmacist, it’s a professional job so it was easier for her to go back but if she wasn’t it would be very hard. It’s really common to quit job after the baby. For teachers it’s not as bad because it is also considered a ‘professional’ job so parental leave and everything is good. But office jobs it’s much shorter. More women than men are on shorter contracts. I really can see how that can become difficult as you hit your 30’s.”
“The city government also found that women who never received higher education tend to return to work after experiencing career disruption, but many of those who attended university choose not to return to work after parental leave.”
The Ministry of Gender and Family affairs in South Korea has recently stated that it will be introducing more support for women who are looking to return to work after maternity leave.
Sources
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