S P & A 0144 5596

V. 37, No. 4, August 2003, . 342 360

Women Reconciling Paid and Unpaid Work in a

Confucian Welfare State: The Case of South Korea

Original
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Sirin Sung
Abstract
The participation of married women in the labour market has been increasing since industrialization in the s in Korea; in it overtook that of unmarried women. This raises the issue
of how women reconcile paid and unpaid work and how state policy responds to this issue. In
Korea, there have been numerous policy reforms designed to support working women in combining
work and family life. For example, a parental leave scheme was introduced in and maternity
benefits were also introduced in . However, it is doubtful whether these policies can be effective
in practice in Korea, where Confucian traditions in respect of womens roles remain strong.
Confucian tradition has long influenced Korean society culturally and socially. Although Korean
society today is not as Confucian as in the past, some traditions still remain strong, particularly
with regard to the family: for example filial piety, seniority, the married womans responsibility for
her parents-in-law. This paper will argue that Confucian tradition makes for difficulties in
Korean womens experiences of reconciling paid and unpaid work and also affects the formation
of state policy. The paper explores the impact of the Confucian welfare regimes on Korean womens
experience of reconciling paid and unpaid care work, and questions the gendered characteristics of
the Confucian welfare state.

Keywords
Women; Paid work; Family duties; Confucianism; Korea

Introduction
There have been many changes in Korean1 society as a result of industrialization and globalization. These include an increasing number of women
participating in the labour market, along with the development of feminist
organizations and improvements in equal rights. The Korean economy has
developed rapidly since the s, after industrialization. Womens participation in the labour market has grown with economic development. An
Address for correspondence: Dr Sirin Sung, Flat 27G, Lowdon Court, Richardson Road, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE2 4BN. E-mail: <sungsirin@hotmail.com>
Blackwell Publishing Ltd. , Garsington Road, Oxford OX DQ , UK and
Main Street, Malden, MA , USA

important factor to be noted here is the increasing level of married womens

participation in the labour market. Since the s, the participation of
married women has been even higher than that of unmarried women (Statistical Yearbook on Women, ). In the light of such changes, state policy for
working women in Korea has also developed over the past few years, since
the Kim Dae Jung government came to power in .
Social policy in general has changed to become more egalitarian, in the
wake of the economic crisis in . In addition, there have been many
recent social policy reforms in respect of gender issues. However, how much
such policies can mean in practice for working women in Korea remains an
open issue, since Confucian traditions with regard to womens role remain
strong. Some observers (Ham ; Kim ; Sakong ) have emphasized the positive effects of Confucianism2 for the rapid economic development of Korean society over a short period. Others, however, have played
down their significance vis--vis the disadvantages imposed. For instance,
Confucian ideas about women have been criticized by feminists and some
academics (Lee ; Mun ; Hinsch ; Palley and Gelb ; Kristeva ), on the grounds that they support patriarchal relationships
between men and women in Korean society. In this paper, I will argue that
Confucian traditions have had an impact on Korean womens experience of
reconciling paid and unpaid work, as well as on shaping state policy for
women, notwithstanding recent changes and policy reforms in Korean society. The object is to explore the difficulties and constraints that Korean
married working women encounter in a Confucian welfare state, where
Confucian traditional ideas compete with notions of equality with regard to
womens role in the family as well as in the workplace.
To comprehend how Confucianism affects the formation of state policy
and working womens experiences in Korea, it is necessary to examine the
Confucian impact on gender roles in sequence. This paper will begin by
discussing contemporary developments vis--vis authentic Confucian ideas on
gender roles in Korean society. Secondly, it will examine Korean state policy
for working women in the context of the Confucian gender regime.
Thirdly, it will explore the Confucian impact on Korean working womens
strategies for combining paid and unpaid care work. Finally, it will conclude
with a discussion of Korean state policy and practice with particular reference to women.
Qualitative methods were used for the research underpinning this paper.
Denzin and Lincoln () point out that qualitative research is useful for
examining the experiences of constraints in everyday life. Certainly it seemed
appropriate to choose a qualitative methodology for exploring womens daily
life experiences and the cultural impact on these. Forty married Korean
working women aged between and divided into two age groups and
according to public/private working sectorswere interviewed, using semistructured interview and vignette3 techniques. The qualitative interviews
were conducted in December , in Seoul, Korea. Selected interviewees
had all been married more than a year; they were over years of age (in
law, people are classed as children up to the age of ) and below the age of
(this being the retirement age for working women in Korea). Interviewees
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Table
Quota sampling (married working women)
Group of interviewees
Married working women (aged )
Married working women (aged )
Total

Private sector

Public sector

Total

were drawn equally from the public and the private sectors, and, within
these, equally from the age groups and , as table shows.

Contemporary Changes versus Confucian Ideas on Korean

Working Women
Korea has achieved rapid economic growth since the s, after industrialization and modernization. The outstanding performance of the Korean
economy, begun in the early s, has lifted the country to a new stage of
economic prowess. South Koreas fast economic development started under
the Park Chung Hee regime, established by military coup in . Park
Chung Hees regime aimed at creating an industrial structure based on large
Korean companies, called chaebol. It established strong protectionist measures
to preserve domestic markets. The state pushed Korean companies to merge,
forming large vertical networks (the chaebol), by virtue of its control of the
banking system and of exportimport licences (Castells ). Amsden ()
and Noland () also argue that the Korean economy was a particular type
of oligopolistic culture. The core of the Korean capitalist class being made
up of to conglomerate business groups (chaebol) each of which was
owned and run by a single family, there was criticism, in the s, of the
monopolistic growth of the chaebol and of state policies that had facilitated
such a development. According to Castells (), the state also organized
the submissive incorporation of labour into the new industrial economy,
under its principle of production and growth first, redistribution later.
In short, there had been no effective social policies linked to economic
growth or policies for labour relations, for all that Korea had achieved rapid
economic growth. In particular, the dictatorship which came to power in
limited labour policy to the restriction of workers wages. In Korea, in
other words, economic growth has been used to justify an authoritarian state.
Nevertheless, it was no longer possible to legitimize such an authoritarian state
in Korea purely on account of economic growth. As Koo () mentioned,
the capitalist class had grown too strong to be easily dominated by the state.
Also, workers were not as docile as they had been and the well-educated
middle class was putting pressure on the state for political democratization.
Certainly, the Korean economy developed rapidly from the s to the
s. The four leading Korean chaebol (Samsung, Lucky Goldstar, Daewoo

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Table
Womens economic activity rates in Korea
Year

Participation rate (%)

Married Women

Single Women

.
.
.

.
.
.

.
.
.

Source: National Statistical Office, Annual report on the economically active population survey,
in Byun et al. (: ).

and Hyundai) were among the worlds largest conglomerates by the s.

Subsequently, nevertheless, the Korean economy has been in crisis. Noland
() points out that the economy needs to reform and the centre of the
reform agenda has to be the chaebol. After the crisis of , the Korean
government faced extreme difficulty in balancing sometimes conflicting goals
of equity, efficiency, and political expediency regarding the chaebol and competition policy in general. The government faced very difficult challenges in
trying to devise a set of policies capable of reducing the degree of government intervention in the economy without either destroying the big firms
or allowing them to completely dominate the South Korean economy. There
is serious unemployment and homelessness now in Korea. Also, the gap
between rich and poor is getting larger since the economic crisis. Korea had
hitherto been well known as a country concentrating on economic development, with only a limited role for government in social welfare ( Jones ;
Joo ; Chang ). However, there have been changes since the economic crisis. For instance, new welfare provisions have been introduced, such
as the unification of medical insurance companies, and the reform of
employment schemes and public assistance programmes.
Meanwhile, with economic development in Korea, womens participation
in the labour market has gradually increased since the s, from . per
cent in to . per cent in (National Statistical Office a,
c). Alternatively put: womens economic rate rose from . per cent in
to . per cent in andas can be seen from table abovehas
further increased since the s, from . per cent in to . per cent
by (Byun et al. ). More particularly, the rate of married womens
participation has increased from . per cent in to . per cent in
(Statistical Yearbook on Women ), whereas single womens participation
rate has declined slightly from . per cent in to . per cent in .
The increasing number of women participating in the labour market has
brought some changes to traditional ideas about womens role in Korean
family and society. For instance, equal opportunity legislation was introduced
in and has since been reformed several times in order to improve rights
for working women. Also, feminist organizations have become more influential,
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in that their voices can be heard more strongly than before. In , the
Korean government established the Department of Gender Equality to
enable women to participate in making government policy. It is a significant
change in so far as government policy had hitherto been focused only on
women in financial difficulties, whereas this policy will concern equal rights
for women in every policy department a move which has been described
by feminists as gender mainstreaming (Heo ; Lee ).
Nevertheless, even with all these changes in Korean society, the extent to
which Korean working womens lives have changed in reality is questionable,
since traditional Confucian ideas about the role of women remain in force.
It is of crucial importance to understand the implications of Confucianism
in Korean society, where Confucian traditions have been strongly practised
and have become key cultural features. Some argue that it was these same
Confucian traditions which helped Korea achieve its rapid economic growth
in the first place. For example, Sakong (: ) maintains that strong Confucian traditions which put great value on education, social harmony, and
co-operation, helped to lay a firm base for future employment. Kim and
Park () also claim that the same traditions have contributed to many
non-economic supporting factors, such as political stability, cultural heritage,
and social discipline. By the same token, however, the characteristics of Confucian patriarchal authoritarian structure in economic firms and organizations in Korea continue to affect womens work experiences. Employees are
taught to regard their workplace as a family, and that the head or manager
of an organization should be considered as a head of the family (Kim ).
The impact of Confucianism on gender roles may be greater than other
factors, since Confucianism clearly presumes different gender roles between
men and women in society and in family relations. As Yousefi and Rives
(: ) argued, womens role in any society is circumscribed by that
societys cultural underpinnings, and this is certainly true in Korea. According to K. W. Cho (), Korea has maintained a patriarchal system of
gender relations for more than two millennia of recorded history. These rigid
gender roles are mainly based on Confucian teachings, which accord a public status to men and a domestic role to women. In the Confucian book of
Yi Jing (the ancient book of Confucianism), the hierarchical relationship
between men and women is described as heaven (mens position) and
earth (womens position). Womans subordination to man was supposed to
be a moral law and women are described as inferior to men in the Confucian
patriarchal family system, in which the patriarchy of husband and father was
endowed with supreme authority. One of the main characteristics of Confucian patriarchy is the obedience of daughters-in-law to their parents-in-law
and to all members of the family-in-law. Married women are supposed to
obey their husbands parents. In Naehunthe book of instruction for women
in Confucian teaching, compiled by the queen mother of a king in the
Chosun dynasty in Koreait is written: always follow what the parents-inlaw order. Dont be idle . . . If the parents-in-law call you, answer promptly
and obediently (K. W. Cho : ). The most important Confucian
virtue is filial pietyrespecting parentsand when a woman is married
filial piety should be to her parents-in-law, rather than to her own parents

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(Choi ). Filial piety includes caring responsibilities when parents are in

old age, and caring for parents generally means living together with them.
In the case of married women in Korea, it implies living together with their
parents-in-law.
Korean society today is not as much dominated by Confucian ideas as in
the past. As remarked above, there are now changes geared to achieving
greater equality between men and women in society. Yet married Korean
women in paid employment today still encounter a contradiction between
the changes and the traditions. On the one hand, they are involved in paid
employment, which can be seen as one of the contemporary changes. On
the other hand, they are also expected to play the role of primary carer and
domestic worker in the family, in ways congruent with the traditional roles
of women in Confucian society.

A Confucian Gender Regime

It is necessary to discuss the Western typology of welfare regimes and feminist discussions about gender and welfare regimes, in order to examine the
relevance of these issues to the Korean welfare system. It is generally agreed
by feminists that every welfare state is gendered, although how far state
policies are woman-friendly differs from one welfare state to another.
There is some Western literature discussing gender and welfare state regimes
(Lewis , ; Orloff ; Sainsbury ) and criticizing the mainstream typology of welfare regimese.g. Esping-Andersens modelfor
ignoring the issue of gender.
Esping-Andersen () categorized the welfare state into three types:
liberal or residual (UK, USA, Canada, Australia), conservative or corporativist (Germany, France, Italy), and social democratic or institutional
(Scandinavian countries). In his typology, the most important issue was, as
Lewis () emphasized, the relationship between employment and welfare to what extent people were permitted to decommodify their labour.
Lewis herself (: ) categorized welfare regimes based on the gender
division of labour that directs breadwinning for men and homemaking for
women. She distinguished between the strong (Ireland and Britain), the
moderate (France), and the weak (Sweden) male-breadwinner model. In her
recent work () she critiques her previous work in two ways: first, it
focused on just a small number of countries and, second, it lacked adequate
attention to caring regimes, policies that have focused on womens unpaid
work. Her idea of considering the dimensions of welfare state regimes in
relation to both paid and unpaid work seems an important step, and it is
useful to analyse the policy in terms of gender regime. However, her research
on gender and welfare state regimes is still mainly focused on European
countries and the ideologies of male breadwinning in Western societies. This
may well be less relevant to East Asian welfare states, such as Korea, Taiwan
and Japan. Another point missing in her work is that she seems to overlook
the importance of cultural impacts on societies and social policy provision,
since she hardly mentions the cultures of European countries which shape
their different patterns of patriarchy. As Pfau-Effinger () observes, Lewiss
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() breadwinner model does not refer to the cultural ideals behind

social action.
There are indeed differences between the Confucian family in Korea and
the Western breadwinner model, as described by Lewis (). Western families tend to focus on interaction only between the husband and wife in each
household; whereas the Confucian family system cannot be appropriately understood without analysing interactions between family-in-law and daughter-inlaw, as well as between husband and wife. In Confucian tradition, married
women are considered as strangers in their natal families, and tend to have
more interaction with their family-in-law than with their own families.
Although the Confucian traditional family system has faded somewhat, the
Confucian notion of womens subordination to their husbands and to all members of the family-in-law remains strong in the Korean family unit. Another
characteristic of the Confucian family is the significance of seniority
according to age and this is also related to respect for the elderly in the
family and in society in general. It is also related to the obedience of children
to the parents in the family. Thus the relationship between son and parent comes
first, before the relationship between husband and wife in the Confucian
family. Moreover, in the Korean family male dominance remains strong. For
instance, in the absence of the father, it is the eldest son who becomes head
of family, not his mother. Indeed, after the father dies, the eldest son becomes
head of the family for every member of that family, even in official documents
(e.g. ID cards). This suggests that women (mothers and daughters) in the
family may have no authority, while men (sons and fathers) have authority of
control over every member of the family. In short, in the Confucian family
seniority does not apply to the females, since the son has more authority
than the mother, which means hierarchy between men and women comes
first, rather than the hierarchy between different generations (the young and
old). Nevertheless, when it comes to relationships between sons and parents
in old age, the sons obedience to his mother as well as to his father comes
before his relationship with his wife, according to the Confucian virtue of
filial piety (Sung ).
Given such cultural differences between Western and Korean family tradition, it does not seem appropriate to categorize the Korean Welfare model in
the same terms as the Western male breadwinner model. There have indeed
been several studies on the case of Confucian welfare state regimes by some
Western authors and a Korean author ( Jones , ; Goodman and Peng
; Goodman et al. ). Jones () pointed to characteristics of the
Confucian welfare state where the family and community take responsibility
for vulnerable members in accordance with need. Goodman and Peng ()
and Goodman et al. () also argued the case for the East Asian Welfare
Model, which is different from welfare state regimes in any Western typology. They claim that the main characteristic of this model is its reliance on
the function of non-state agencies, like family, community, and firm, rather
than state. Nevertheless, the extent to which Confucianism has affected the
welfare system in East Asian countries, including Korea, needs more study.
It is not the key concern of the present paper to demonstrate the case
for an East Asian Welfare Model, per se, simply to note the importance of

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Confucian culture for gender regimes in Korea. It is obvious that Confucian

traditions have had an influence on peoples thoughts in Korea. In this case,
it can be assumed that Confucianism has affected Korean society in general,
which may include welfare policy-making. Through the emphasis on strong
familism and Confucian virtue (e.g. filial piety), families and individuals in
Korea (women in particularconsidering the fact that most caregivers are
women), carry huge responsibilities for the care of children and the elderly
( parents-in-law in particular). In Korean welfare provision, women are considered as the main carers; for example, nursing/caring leave systems for
family members (children, parents) show that these are considered to be a
womans job, and are thus available to female workers. Although some
provisionssuch as parental leaveare based on equality between men and
women workers, in practice it is still considered womens work to take care
of children. The details of this gendered welfare policy for working women
i.e. of a welfare policy that reflects the idea of the division of labour between
men and womenwill be further examined in the next section.

Working Women and State Policy in Korea

In spite of rapid economic growth in Korea since the s, income redistribution between the poor and the rich has not been achieved. Social policy
has not been a prominent issue in Korea, compared to economic development. These features have changed slightly since the financial crisis in Korea,
because of the rising number of unemployed. After the economic crisis in
in Korea, social security in general has become more generous. The
new government of Kim Dae Jung, which came to power in , has been
keen to strengthen the social safety net by reforming the employment insurance scheme and public assistance programme (Shin ), including reformation of the national pension scheme, national health insurance, and equal
opportunity legislation. In terms of equal opportunity legislation, maternity
leave benefit has been introduced and has been active from November .
(Previously, there was no payment for women taking maternity leave.) However, do the reforms of welfare policy really help Korean working women to
reconcile paid and unpaid work?
State policy on childcare in support of married working women
There are two main state policies in support of married working women in
Korea: the maternity leave system (parental leave) and workplace nurseries
for working womens children.
Maternal protection Working women qualify for two months maternity leave

for childbearing with a right of return to work. Also, women workers are
entitled to one years maternity leave for childrearing, which is described as
the child care leave system in Korea. This system was introduced in ,
through the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, for the purpose of protecting working mothers and enhancing the quality of both work and family life
(Park ). After maternity leave, women have the right to return to work
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and employers should not accord discriminatory treatment to women in the

workplace. In , maternity leave was changed into parental leave to
emphasize the responsibility of fathers, as well as mothers. But although
policy was reformed to extend the responsibility to fathers as well as mothers,
it still seems to reflect the traditional idea that women have more responsibility in taking care of children and doing domestic labour. For example, in
law, eligibility to apply for parental leave is for first, the working woman and
then her partner (sec. , para. ). This expression gives the impression that
caring for children is the womans job rather than the mans. According to
reformed equal opportunity legislation, workers are eligible for maternity
leave benefit from November . The benefit will be financed by employment insurance. The amount of benefit is (, Won) per month
(Hangyure ). However, the amount of benefit is too far below earnings to
be effective for working mothers in financial difficulties to take leave. The
employment insurance scheme was also reformed to expand the benefit for
pregnant women and child bearing during the holiday period ( days)
(Ministry of Health and Welfare, ). Also, there is a maternity leave subsidy, intended to help working mothers regain employment after their maternity leave. The Korean government offers a maternity leave subsidy to any
employer offering maternity leave to a working mother. But the amount of
this subsidy is only , , Won ( ) per person (Kim ).
Another problem with this maternal protection system is that the firm-based
institutionalization of maternity protection is so far very limited. In the manufacturing industry, there are only a few firms which have instituted the system
of maternity protection (Chung ). In any case, an employee needs to be
a full-time worker (wage-earner), in order to be eligible for maternity leave;
whereas there is a high proportion of women with only part-time or temporary jobs in Korea (Kim ; Kim ).
Nurseries for working womens children in the workplace The management of child
care facilities was introduced with the child care leave system in order to help
married women retain their jobs. In equal opportunity legislation, it is mentioned that employers may establish a nursery for children aged from
months to years, to support working mothers in the workplace (Lee ;
Kim ). There is a certain amount of compensation for employers who
establish a nursery for working women. However, there is no punishment for
employers who fail to offer nursery places for working mothers. In practice,
working women in Korea tend to rely on female relatives for childcare
because of the lack of government schemes (Kim ). There is a tendency,
still, to consider responsibility for childcare to be an individual matter, rather
than one for society (Kim ; Jeong ). There is a childcare law to
encourage employers to establish nurseries in the workplace, when employers
have more than female workers. The government provides a certain
amount of compensation for any employer who establishes a nursery for such
workers ( Jeong ). However, this policy is scarcely effective for women
working in small firms (less than women workers)and even for big
firms, it is not compulsory to build nurseries for working mothers in the
workplace. Also, the policy seems problematic in that it may reinforce the

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Table
Structure of elderly households (%)

Korea

USA,
Denmark,

One person

With spouse

With grown-up children

Others

.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.

Source: Korea Survey Polls and Japanese Prime Ministers Office (), and Cheong et al.
(), in H. J. Kwon (: ).

traditional notion that responsibility for childcare still rests primarily with the
individual and particularly with women (mothers) (Kim ). Nonetheless,
in addition and in confirmation of this, there is a regulation imposing a duty
on government to make an effort for working womens welfare and rights.
This indicates that government and local authorities may establish welfare
institutions for education, childcare, and housing for working women.
State policy in support of working women caring for the elderly
The proportion of the elderly population (aged or over) is increasing in
Korean society, although the problem of an ageing society is not yet as
serious as in Western societies. In , the proportion of elderly was . per
cent of the population, . per cent in and it is expected to be . per
cent by (H. J. Kwon ; National Statistical Office b). As can be
seen from table , some . per cent of the elderly in Korea live together
with their grown-up children whereas, in the USA and Denmark, for
instance, most of the elderly live alone or with only their spouse. According
to H. J. Kwon (), about half of Korean elderly people receive their main
income from their children.
Among the elderly population, women made up . per cent in .
The average life expectancy for women is . years and for men it is, so far,
. (Park ); though it will have increased to . for women, . for
men by (National Statistical Office b). Most elderly women are not
eligible for the pension scheme, since the National Pension Programme will
only start to pay retirement pensions in (Kwon ). In spite of the
increasing elderly population, state policy has not addressed this problem of
supporting the elderly and women who care for the elderly. According to
Palley (), because of growth-oriented economic policy, geared to an
aggressive overseas marketing strategy, the Korean government in the early
s placed emphasis on Confucian virtues regarding informal caregiving
in the three-generation family: essentially, care given by the daughter-in-law
is the basis of its social policy.
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In , the Korean Ageing Policy Act outlined the governmental

approach to services and policies for the elderly. Its main features were an
emphasis on tax incentives and awards, to encourage families to provide care
and shelter for elderly relatives. Government policy has focused on family
responsibilities for parental care rather than state responsibilities. For children who provide living space in their home for parents, government policy
provides tax incentives by lowering inheritance taxes. Little is provided in the
way of domiciliary social services or community care, or institutional care for
the elderly (Lee ). Government funding for social services, which are
only for the aged without families, is very limited, since the entire policy is
based on family responsibility.
In short, the characteristics of social care in Korea remain familyorientated. As Sung () argued, women in the family are the major
source of filial care. Men in the family are likely to provide financial support,
but they are less likely to help with caring and hands-on services. Hence
family-centred parent care is likely to be a burden for women in Korea,
working women in particular, since there is no appropriate state provision of
care. It is possible that the government places an emphasis on Confucian
values, such as filial piety for parents, in order to ascribe responsibilities for
the elderly firmly to the family. Elder care in Korea does indeed rely heavily
on family members, so families play a major role in caring for the elderly
rather than the state (H. J. Kwon ). In new policy documents on welfare
provision for the aged, there is a section called enhancement of the spirit of
respect for the aged which clearly mentions that in order to enhance the
spirit of respect for the aged, the government officially honours filial sons
and daughters-in-law and typical traditional families annually (Ministry of
Health and Welfare : ). This also implies that in Korean families sons
and daughters-in-law are more responsible for parental care than daughters.
Under these circumstances, it can be said that women in paid employment
have societal pressure to perform as filial daughters-in-law, along with
their responsibilities for paid work.

Working Womens Strategies to Combine both Paid and

Unpaid Work
In the previous section, I argued that Confucian culture affects the formation
of the welfare regime, including the gender regime. In this section, I will
argue that the Confucian welfare regime which relies on family for care work
affects Korean womens experiences in reconciling paid and unpaid work.
From the interviews conducted, it seemed there were two different groups of
respondents managing both paid and unpaid work. One was using strategies
of getting help from other people. Another was managing it all by themselves
using their own strategies, such as making plans and managing time. A
Western author, Garey (), interviewed two US college women, to find
that each of them had quite different strategies for their future childcare
plans. One said that she would drop out of paid work to raise her children
and then return to work when they are older. The other said that she
would use a female family member to care for her children. This pattern of

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difference was similar for Korean working women that I interviewed. Some
respondents had dropped out of their work for childcare, but the majority
had secured help from female family memberseither from their own family
or their family-in-law. Even so, Korean womens experiences of getting help
from their family-in-law could be different from Western experiences.
Strategies for managing childcare
One of the main strategies was to get help from the female members of the
family or family-in-law. From the evidence of the interviews, half of the
respondents had had help from others, whereas those respondents who said
they had nobody to help with childcare tended to have children who were
aged over in any case, so that the children could go to either primary
school or nursery during the day. However, the responsibility for childcare
after school time was fully on the respondents.
Half of respondents stated that a female member of the family or familyin-law did help them with childcare. Ms Euns account indicates this:
My mother helps me with childcare. I am happy that I have my mother to help me
because my husband doesnt help me with caring for children in the family. (Eun,4
case , p. )
Ms Euns account also shows that mothers are taking more responsibility for
caring for children than fathers in the family, even though they are working.
The other respondents said that nobody helped them with childcare in the
family, so they alone were responsible.
I have two children and I am the one who takes care of my children mostly because
my husband comes home late to work in the workplace. I never had and still do not
have anybody to help me with it, so it is very difficult for me to do both childcare
and paid work. (Kwon, case , pp. )
Half of respondents did not have anyone to help with childcare. In this case,
as Ms Kwon explained, it could be very difficult for women to combine paid
work and childcare. If their husbands spend a long time in paid work, it could
be more difficult for women to combine paid and family work. According to
Turner (), working mothers were found to be particularly stressed when
there was a lack of participation by their spouses in childcare and housework.
One respondent described how she often brings her work home to cope
with childcare.
I normally take my work home, when I cant finish it because I cant stay in the
workplace for long. I have to come home to do family work and to take care of my
children. Therefore, I take work home and when everybody sleeps I start my work to
finish it before the next day. ( Jeon, case , pp. )
Ms Jeon said that the main reason for her reluctance to stay late in the
workplace is to take care of her children. From her point of view, motherhood
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affected her working time more than domestic work, and she also considered
childcare more important than any other family obligations. Something
similar to this point of view is found in Western literature: namely it is usually
parenthood rather than marriage that is more significant in generating
homework conflicts (Evetts : ).
Women generally attach greater importance to childcare than to domestic
work, and this was true of the respondents in this study. Unlike domestic
work, childcare cannot be reduced or delayed. For instance, when the child
is sick, it needs care immediately. Therefore, the main strategy of those
respondents without help from others was to go home as soon as possible
when they finished work, in order to spend more time with their children.
Certainly, most respondents relied on their family or family-in-law or themselves, rather than childcare institutions. This could be a comment on the
lack of childcare institutionsespecially public institutionsin Korea, as
observed by Byun et al. (). Employers do not offer workplace nurseries
and the government does not offer enough public nurseries. Thus the strategies for working women to manage childcare rest on their families or on
themselves.
Managing elder care
There are large variations in womens experiences with regard to care of the
elderly, in the West. In the case of Korea and largely as a result of Confucianism, however, there is less variation and more obligations on women to
perform as carers to their parents-in-law. According to a survey from the
Statistical Yearbook on Women () in Korea, parental care is widely regarded
as a responsibility of the family, rather than of the state. This is similar to my
findings, where most respondents think that care for the elderly should be
the responsibility of children, especially of the sons of the family. When I
asked respondents: Do you think children should take responsibility for
caring for their parents or should governments? a few respondents said that
the government should take more responsibility for elderly people than
before. They accepted differences of lifestyle and way of thinking between
parents and children, and that compromise would be difficult. Therefore, it
might be better to live separatelyand, in that respect, the government
should help elderly people to be independent from their children.
The following shows why Ms Chae thinks that government should take
more responsibilities than before:
I think there will be a big generation gap between my parents-in-law and me, and
it will be difficult to make them understand my ideas. Then, I will be the one who
has to follow their ideas, at least I have to pretend to follow it. I think it is better
to live separately and see each other sometimes. To do that, government should take
more responsibilities for elderly people than before. (Chae, case , p. )
However, most respondents suggested that children should take care of their
parents and live together, in order to teach children how to respect parents
and to keep the Confucian traditional virtue of filial piety.

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I think children should take care of their parents and live together when parents get
old, because it will be a good way to show my children how to take care of the
parents. My son will do the same thing for me as I did for my parents-in-law.
( Jin, case , p. )
Ms Jin thinks it is a virtue to live with her parents-in-law, so she wants to
teach that to her children. It seems that she attaches great importance to the
Confucian value of filial piety so that her children should follow the value
and teach it to the next generation.
Interestingly, the majority of respondents described their agreement about
living with parents-in-law in terms of following Confucian virtue, which is
filial piety. They consider that this virtue should be kept because it is a good
tradition in Korean society.
I agree with the idea of living with parents-in-law. It is the responsibility of children
to take care of their parents, when the parents get old. I think its better for a son to
take the responsibility for it, because it always has been that way and it is our
tradition and Confucian virtue to keep. (Yu, case , p. )
Ms Yu strongly agreed with living with parents-in-law because it was a good
tradition to keep. She also accepted the idea that the eldest son in the family
is the most responsible for living with parents. Once again, the responsibility
of the eldest son in the Korean Confucian family seems to be considerable.
In addition, some respondents show strong reluctance to send their parents
or parents-in-laws to a government institution for elderly people. They have
a negative image of such institutions. It would be regarded as abandoning
their parents-in-law, if they sent them to a government institution.
I will never send my own parents or parents-in-law to some kind of state institution
for old people. I dont feel good, when I think they will live there. I think Ill have
to live with my parents-in-law soon because my husband is the only son in his
family. I think parents need help from their children, when they are old. It is not only
financial support but also caring support from their children. I will accept to live with
my parents-in-law because I feel so bad, when I think that my sister-in-law, the wife
of my brother, will send my mother to a government institution. It is like deserting
them. (Min, case , p. )
Ms Min emphasized the childrens responsibility in caring for parents, and
she particularly emphasized the sons responsibility in living with parents. It
seems that Confucian traditions remain strong in terms of parental care. In
the Korean concept, living with parents-in-law often means supporting them
financially as well as emotionally (Byun et al. ). For elderly women, the
financial support is often more important because they are likely not to have
any old age pension, since they have not been involved in paid work during
their youth. Although most respondents agree with the traditional idea of
living with parents-in-law, there were some respondents who wanted improved
social policy for elder care. As mentioned earlier, the state emphasizes the
responsibility for elder care in the family, rather than improving government
policy for care (Lee ; S. Kwon ). The Confucian traditional idea still
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seems prevalent in that most respondents said parental care is a responsibility

for the children, especially the son.

Conclusion
Korean social policy for working women is in the process of development
and the government has made many reforms, along with other recent
changes in Korean society as a consequence of industrialization, womens
increasing participation in the labour market, and the impact of international organizations in improving gender equality. However, the reality of
these changes for working women in Korea, in more practical terms, is that
important issues remain to be addressed. So far, according to Korean working womens experiences as here recorded, the new policy has not turned out
to be as effective in practice as might have been expected. In short, Confucian tradition in womens roles remains too strong an influence. Confucian
welfare regimes are deeply gendered, especially in terms of womens responsibility for unpaid care work. Thus Confucian traditions continue to have an
influence on working womens experience of reconciling paid and unpaid
work as well as shaping of state policy.
From the interviews conducted, it was evident that Korean working
womens strategies for reconciling paid and unpaid work were largely based
on either getting help from family members or doing it by themselves, rather
than relying on policy schemes. Although welfare regimes in most societies
are gendered, due to the existence of patriarchy in every society, there are
differences in how and to what extent it is gendered. The Confucian characteristics of the welfare regime in Korea are heavily reliant on the family
and private realm, rather than on the state; and this naturally affects state
policy for working women. Although the new Korean government has made
an effort to improve womens rights, state policies for working women are
still gendered and Confucianism is partly responsible for this.
The Confucian impact on state policy can be seen most clearly in care
provisions (or rather in the lack of them). Care work is mainly regarded as a
family responsibility, which directly leads to its being the womens responsibility. In terms of childcare, the number of private nurseries is much greater
than the number of public ones. The government tries to impose responsibilities on employers to establish nurseries in the workplace for working
women, which may have the result of discouraging the recruitment of female
workers. Although the government provides a subsidy to employers who
establish workplace nurseries, the amount of subsidy is insufficient to encourage employers actually to establish them.
In terms of elder care, the government still emphasizes the Confucian
virtue of filial piety. The virtue itself is a good one. However, if the government places an emphasis on Confucian virtue in order to avoid responsibility for elder care, emphasizing the virtue can result in attributing
responsibilities to families and individuals from a morally unsound governmental position. Certainly it is the case that unpaid care work seems
neglected in Korean state policy and is considered a responsibility for
women. To be sure, the problem of ignoring the issue of unpaid work in

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social policy has not been peculiar to the Korean government. According to
Lewis (), Britains welfare state has all along been constructed around
the paid workwelfare relationship, leaving the issue of reconciling work and
family responsibilities virtually ignored. She argues that it is nevertheless
important to include unpaid work as well as paid work in debating gender
and welfare regimes, because the unpaid work is done primarily by women
in providing welfare, mainly within the family (Lewis , ). Similarly, in
Korea, the present Kim Dae Jung government emphasizes improving womens
rights to work by increasing the number of women workers in the public
sector. However, caring for dependants (children and the elderly) still remains
a family responsibility. Furthermore, in Korea, mens participation in care
work does not seem to have increased as rapidly as womens participation in
paid work. In short, in the case of Korean working women, the responsibility
of care may be heavier than that facing Western women, while the responsibility for caring for parents-in-law stands out as another distinctive factor.
Korean working women living in a Confucian society, encountering the
changes of Western and modern influence in the idea of gender equality,
experience confusion as to the social and behavioural norms they are supposed to follow traditional or new ideas. Korean working women in the
Confucian welfare state are welfare providers for children and the elderly, as
well as paid workers, without great support from either their families (husband or family-in-law) or from the state. They are taking on the main
responsibilities without having much entitlement and rights from the state as
citizens and with no power and authority in Confucian families as family
members. Although Korean social policy for working women is changing in
a relatively more egalitarian direction, Korean working womens lives have
in practice not changed as rapidly as state policy implies.
Women still do most of the unpaid work regardless of whether they are
involved in paid work or not. The population of working women is increasing and it will continue to increase. Thus, it seems more appropriate for the
Korean government to pay more attention to improving state policy for
women in paid employment, and to supporting them in combining paid and
unpaid work, rather than attributing sole responsibility to families by emphasizing Confucian virtue.

Notes
. Korea refers to South Korea throughout the paper.
. Confucianism was a philosophy that came from China, first formulated by Confucius (Kung-Fu-Tzu; ).
. Vignettes are short stories about hypothetical characters in a specified circumstance to whose situation the interviewee is invited to respond (Birchall and
Hallett ).
. Pseudonyms have been used in this paper to maintain confidentiality.

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