More Korean men man up and become homemakers

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More Korean men man up and become homemakers

Published: 23 Feb. 2023, 16:20 Updated: 24 Feb. 2023, 15:21

People look at a baby bottle sterilizer while visiting a baby product fair held at COEX, southern Seoul, on Feb. 9 [NEWS1]

In Korea, more men are becoming homemakers.

Of men "economically inactive" — those not working and not seeking work — 215,000 said they are not working because they are in charge of family housework, according to a statistics report released by the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) on Feb. 15.

Of the economically inactive men, 17,000 said they are out of work for full-time parenting. This is the highest number since KOSIS started collecting the data in 1999, and 21.4 percent higher than the previous year.

Yoon Keun-byul, a 39-year-old part-time teacher who stopped working in 2020, stays home caring for his 3-year-old daughter.

“My peers, including my wife who is a full-time teacher, opposed the decision,” Yoon said, adding that it took him a while to persuade his wife. Time with the child is "precious," he said, and “money can be earned later."

Lee Seung-bin, a 41-year-old developer at a game company, is soon to become a homemaker after he resigns in the coming weeks. He will stay home to take care of his first child, who will be a first grader in March, and his second, who is due in June. Lee made the decision to quit work after discussing the issue with his wife, an IT company marketer.

“I thought making money and protecting the family were what made a father a ‘good’ father,” Lee said. “My thoughts changed a lot during my first paternity leave.”

The increase in the number of stay-at-home dads is different from the rise in the late 1990s and early 2000s when many men were forced out of work due to financial crises.

More men and fewer women are homemaking and taking care of their kids as the years pass.

In 2013, about 144,000 men said they were economically inactive to take care of the home, 166,000 in 2018 and 232,000 in January this year.

About 7.32 million women were homemakers in 2013, and the number steadily declined to 6.98 in January.

“The data indicated the gendered division of labor based on patriarchal gender stereotypes is rapidly dismantling among the young population,” said Seok Jae-eun, a social welfare professor at Hanlim University. “As more are becoming aware of gender equality, more men are leaning towards infant parenting and housework.”

The number of female homemakers still overwhelms the number of husbands doing the same by 30 times.

With Korea's fertility rate at 0.78, the lowest among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, it is important for roles to evolve.

“It’s premature to say infant parenting and houseworking men are common,” Jung Jae-hoon, a social welfare professor at Seoul Women’s University, said. “We need to follow the western European model of encouraging both sexes to take part in infant care by reducing labor hours with parental leaves and flexible working hours.”

Society as a whole needs to promote parenting for all moms and dads, not just for those who have stable jobs, Seok added.

BY CHO HYUN-SOOK, SEO JI-WON AND SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]