A special feature by BBC entitled, ‘South Korean Women and Marriage’, has shown that the number of women boycotting marriage is increasing by year, bringing the country to the lowest in fertility rate globally. The survey included testimonies of some women who consider marriage and pregnancy as unfavorable to their career life, owing to the hard-working and passionate work culture, while citing labor unions as saying the reluctance to marry is not mainly personal, but is rather related to the discriminatory attitude towards pregnant female workers. Mun Jeong Choi, one of the women who have been repeatedly harassed by her boss when she got pregnant, pointed out that the role of women is often deliberately disregarded amidst massive economic advancement achieved by the Asian nation over the past 50 years. Such progress, Choi explained, has lifted South Korea from a third world state to one of the major world economies, noting that the huge economic shift depended largely on low-wage factory laborers, who are in their majority females. Women have to provide full care to their family members while the male breadwinner focuses only on his work outside the house, Choi stated, adding that South Korean women are now taking jobs that were previously exclusive to men, both in managerial and professional positions. But despite above changes, the change remains sluggish in the social outlook, which is usually sexist, Choi lamented, voicing concern over the possibility of being exposed to domestic violence, based on the fact that the male in her country views the woman as a slave. The BBC report has cited statistics by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which indicated that the South Korean man spends roughly 45 minutes a day on unpaid work, like childcare, whereby the woman spends five times more the time he spends on the same chore. (Al Diyar, August 21, 2018)
