Only Sympathy for 'Housework Sharing'
Wage Gap Between Men and Women Persists
The proportion of people who believe that "marriage is a must" has significantly decreased. The decline was particularly noticeable among young women. Among teenage girls, only 2.6% thought that "marriage is absolutely necessary."
According to the "Women's Health in Numbers 2023" report published on the 30th by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's National Institute of Health, the proportion of people aged 15 and older in South Korea who believe that "marriage is a must" in 2022 has significantly decreased compared to 2012.
By age group, the proportion of men aged 20-29 who answered that "marriage is a must" was 20.9% in 2012 but dropped to 10.1% in 2022. For women, it decreased from 9% to 4.7%. Among men aged 30-39, the rate fell from 15.3% to 12.3%, and among women, it declined from 7% to 5.2%. The younger the age group, the greater the decrease.
Teenagers were even more negative about marriage. Among both teenage boys and girls, the proportion who thought marriage was essential remained in the single digits. Ten years ago, the proportion of 15-19-year-olds who believed "marriage is absolutely necessary" was 15.6% for males and 8.3% for females, but in 2022, it was only 7.5% for males and 2.6% for females.
The proportion of women who remain unmarried or have no children has increased. Among women born in the 1950s, less than 4% were unmarried or childless by the age of 40, but among women born in 1980 (currently 43 years old), the non-marriage rate was 18%, and the childless rate was 26%, showing a significant rise.
The number of people who believe that household chores should be shared fairly has greatly increased over the past decade. Especially among younger age groups, the proportion who think household chores should be shared was higher. Overall, 70% of women and 60% of men believed that fair sharing was appropriate. However, according to a survey by the Korean Women’s Development Institute asking women how much their husbands perform household chores by category, there has been almost no change over the past 10 years.
The National Institute of Health interpreted this as "while social consensus on the fair sharing of household chores has grown, changes in awareness have not translated into changes in reality."
South Korea still has the largest gender wage gap among OECD member countries. As of 2022, the average gender wage gap among OECD countries was 11.9%, while South Korea's was 31.2%.
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