Overworking Korean Parents... "Reduce Working Hours," Harvard Professor's Critique [K Population Strategy]

(50) Interview with Mary C. Brinton, Harvard Professor
Over 30 Years of Research on East Asian Women’s Employment
Dual-Income Couples Find It Hard to Dream of a Second Child
"Four Weeks of Mandatory Parental Leave for New Dads Needed"

Editor's NoteThe key to solving South Korea's population problem lies within companies. A workplace atmosphere that evaluates employees based on their work regardless of gender and a family-friendly culture are crucial to addressing the K-population issue. While low birth rates are influenced by multiple factors, it is important to ensure that workplace burdens do not become obstacles that make people hesitate to have children. Asia Economy plans to visit companies leading family-friendly policies to identify the factors that enabled stable implementation of these systems and to explore various solutions with companies that face practical challenges. Through this, we aim to encourage change starting from companies and analyze the government's role in making this possible. We listen to voices emphasizing that company culture and atmosphere that reduce psychological burdens are more critical than financial support, and present alternatives from various perspectives.

"Long working hours are the most significant factor preventing work-family balance in East Asia. Both men and women struggle to allocate time between personal life and work."

Mary C. Brinton, a Harvard University sociology professor and American sociologist who has studied East Asian women's employment and childcare issues for nearly 40 years, cited long working hours as the core cause of South Korea's low birth rate in an interview with Asia Economy on the 28th. Professor Brinton has analyzed and researched changes in employment and fertility rates of East Asian women, including those in South Korea and Japan, since the late 1980s.

Mary C. Brinton, a professor at Harvard University in the United States, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 28th, "Long working hours are the most important factor preventing work-life balance in East Asia," adding, "Both men and women have difficulty allocating time between personal life and work." Photo by Mary C. Brinton

She has recently published papers studying the lives of East Asian women and has examined domestic women's employment and childbirth issues several times with Korean scholars. In the 1980s, she was a visiting researcher at Keio University in Japan and in 1996 at Yonsei University. In 2019, she submitted a paper to an American sociology journal titled "Babies, Work, or Both? Highly Educated Women’s Employment and Fertility in East Asia," where she conducted in-depth interviews with over 160 men and women from Korea and Japan to analyze why fertility rates among highly educated women in the two countries are low.

She pointed out that South Koreans "work longer hours compared to other Western countries." According to OECD statistics, in 2022, the average total annual working hours per worker in South Korea was 1,901 hours, significantly exceeding the OECD average of 1,752 hours. Only a few Latin American countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Chile worked longer annually than South Korea. Earlier, the OECD noted in a 2019 report that 21% of women in South Korea work more than 50 hours per week, far above the member country average of 8%.

Professor Brinton explained, "(Working late) makes it difficult for young people in their 20s to meet potential marriage partners and spend time getting to know each other, and professionals have little time to spend with their families." She emphasized that women especially face a "double burden" of unpaid labor, including childcare, both at work and at home, as their husbands come home late from work.

The reality is that the burden of housework and childcare falls disproportionately on women. In particular, even female managers in domestic companies spend one hour more on housework after leaving work compared to their male counterparts. According to the "2023 Female Manager Panel Survey" released by the Korean Women's Development Institute, among 3,648 male and female managers at the assistant manager level or above, the average daily housework time was 2.7 hours for women and 1.8 hours for men. For female managers, their own average housework time was 2.7 hours, while their spouses averaged 1.5 hours. Women accounted for two-thirds (65.3%) of the couple's total housework time.

Long Working Hours... Women Face a Choice Between Career and Family

Professor Brinton believes that South Korea and Japan are uniquely exposed to environments where work-family balance is impossible for women compared to major countries like the United States. This is because, amid a culture of working late, social norms still dictate that men are responsible for earning a living while women handle housework and childcare. She said, "Long working hours are closely linked to employees' status and promotion prospects," adding, "Therefore, women who want to have a career do not want to reduce their working hours due to childcare, considering competition with male employees." She added, "Ultimately, these women have to choose between quitting work to fully focus on family or pursuing their dreams at work without having children."

Due to the persistent gender disparity in housework burden caused by long working hours, Professor Brinton believes that dual-income couples are less likely to have more than one child due to time constraints. In her 2019 paper, she pointed out that husbands typically arrive home around 9:00 or 9:30 p.m., making it practically impossible for them to contribute to housework and childcare on weekdays. She also explained that among highly educated married couples of childbearing age, there is a division between wives who give up regular employment and those who maintain it, with the latter being less likely to decide to have a second child.

According to the "2023 Birth and Death Statistics" and "December 2023 Population Trends" released by Statistics Korea, among the 230,000 newborns last year, first-born children accounted for 60.1%, an increase of 8.5 percentage points over the past decade. The proportion of second-born children showed a declining trend, decreasing by 11.4% in just one year. This indicates that families having two or more children are becoming increasingly rare.

Besides long working hours, Professor Brinton expressed concern about South Korea's low birth rate, stating, "Low-educated male workers have low wages, making it difficult to maintain the traditional burden of housing costs when marrying," which further diminishes their motivation to marry and have children.

She also pointed out the lack of adequate public childcare facilities for dual-income couples. Due to the shortage of public childcare centers, parents often have to put their names on waiting lists and wait a long time. Moreover, the public childcare system is not designed to accommodate dual-income couples working late hours, forcing them to send their children to expensive private childcare centers. Professor Brinton analyzed, "In South Korea, it seems quite important to increase the number of childcare facilities, improve the quality of childcare services, and build trust in these services."

"The Role of Managers Within Companies is Crucial"… Fathers Need to Learn Childcare

When asked what the most urgent task is for South Korea to solve the low birth rate problem, Professor Brinton replied, "I hope South Korean companies will work to reduce working hours and increase wages for low-educated workers." She added, "I hope South Korean men will take a more active role in childcare," emphasizing that "social norms need to change so that men's participation in childcare is more highly valued." She believes that it is not only women who should strive to balance career and family, but men should also recognize that this applies to them as well.

Professor Brinton emphasized the role of companies in helping working parents balance work and family, stating, "The role of middle managers and above is especially important." She said, "They should encourage employees to work efficiently to reduce working hours," and "When women take maternity or parental leave causing work gaps, the workload should be appropriately distributed so that colleagues do not resent them upon their return." At the same time, she said, "When male employees take parental leave, the distribution of work among colleagues should be careful and fair."

Since 2018, Professor Brinton has also served as the director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. In 2022, she published a book in Japan titled "Bound Japanese: Can We Break the Norms Causing Population Decline?" addressing Japan's low birth rate issue. She is currently preparing an English version. In this book, she noted that although Japan has better childcare-related systems than the United States and Sweden, deeply rooted social norms about gender roles prevent their easy use. South Korea and Japan are among OECD countries with well-established paid paternity leave systems, but "actual usage rates are very low," she pointed out.

When asked if she thinks mandatory paternity leave is necessary, Professor Brinton said, "I believe that expectant fathers should be given mandatory parental leave for a short period, for example, four weeks, with full salary compensation." In a workplace environment where employees hesitate even to mention taking maternity or parental leave due to social pressure, mandating a short period of parental leave for all men immediately after their spouse's childbirth would allow increased male participation in childcare without fear of personnel disadvantages.

Professor Brinton said, "If men (new fathers) are expected to work during that period, their workload should be drastically reduced." She added, "I understand that some fathers do not invest time and effort in learning how to care for newborns during the early days," and "this will delay changes in social norms regarding ideal motherhood and fatherhood." She concluded, "Mandatory paternity leave would eliminate the stigma faced by men who want to take parental leave and actively participate in childcare."

Special Coverage Team 'K-Population Strategy - Gender Equality is the Answer'

Reporters Yuri Kim, Hyunju Lee, Hyunjin Jung, Aeri Boo, Byungseon Gong, Juni Park, Seungseop Song
Economic and Finance Editor Pilsoo Kim