Living in Korea as a woman

Since I came back to Korea from Vietnam in October 2021, I have met a lot of friends and former colleagues. But I still haven’t seen my best friends from middle school. They are all married and have one or two kids. Two of them who have two kids don’t have a job and one of them who has a kid works as a lawyer. Apparently, they are always too busy taking care of their kids and work in this Covid pandemic, we all live in a different part of the city and it is not easy to find a suitable time for all of us. Two of them with two children used to work before their marriage. It was their choice to quit their jobs at that time, but now it is not easy for someone whose career has been broken for 10years to get a new job.                                                   

I go to a yoga studio three times a week mostly in the morning. There are usually young mothers who come to do exercise after sending their kids to schools. Korea is still a patriachal society. 

I thought the industry I worked in was quite gender neutral because the number of men and women in the company were quite similar and the roles at work were the same. It really depends on the company and each company has a different culture and management system. But there seemed to be a limitation (glass ceiling) for women to take (charge of) higher positions in my last company. When the garment production industry was hit by the first Covid outbreak in the US in 2020, it was mostly women and mums who were advised to resign. Was it because they were less capable of work than their male colleagues were? I doubt that. 

Of course the times have changed a lot when compared to/with my parents’ generation and there are many women who keep/continue working after giving birth. I see that the number of men who take paternity leave is increasing too. A friend of mine recently started working for the air force as a researcher of military uniforms, in a city that is far from their home. Her husband is very supportive and is good at taking care of their baby. Now he is on paternity leave for so that she can work in a different city during weekdays without having to travel a long distance so often and child care hasn’t suffered as a consequence. 

I think there is still long way to go. These days, many women don’t want to give up their career for rearing children. As a result, the fertility rate of Korea has decreased and hit the its lowest level on record with 0.81 last year. There should be better system that can help women keep their careers without sacrificing so much.