More Koreans now oppose the idea that mothers should stay home to care for their children than support it, a regular government-affiliated survey showed Monday.
Some 34.1 percent of respondents disagreed with the view that “mothers should care for children at home,” slightly higher than the 33.8 percent who agreed, according to a report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.
The remaining 32.1 percent said they were neutral.
The KIHASA report was based on last year’s survey of 7,300 households across the country. The survey has been conducted regularly since 2006, with results first released in 2007 and then every three years.
The 2007 report showed sharply different public sentiment, with 64.7 percent of respondents saying they believed children should be cared for by stay-at-home mothers. Only 17.7 percent opposed the idea.
Since then, support for the idea that mothers should be primary caregivers has steadily declined, except for a brief rise to 71.17 percent in 2010.
The shift has come as more women remain in the workforce. The share of economically active women, referring to those working or looking for jobs, stayed below the 50 percent mark until the mid-2000s, surpassing it for the first time in 2005. But many women continued to leave work after childbirth, largely due to expectations from their families or workplaces.
The employment rate for women stood at 53.4 percent in 2007, compared with 74.9 percent for men. It reached 60 percent for the first time in 2022.
Last year, the female employment rate stood at 63 percent, a significant increase from previous decades but still below the 76.5 percent recorded for men.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
