No bias against women with jobs and kids

KIM KYOUNG-HEE
The author is a business news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo.

“Oh, you’re a patriot indeed.”

I have been getting compliments since I got pregnant with my second child. When I was pregnant with my first child three years ago, I was a bit uncomfortable and felt like I was forced into “exclusive patriotism.”

But things have changed. During these times when the potential growth rate could drop to 1 percent due to lowered productivity as a result of the low birth rate and fast aging population, pregnancy and child birth may deserve to be revered.

But it must not stop at mere admiration. According to the Korea Development Institute, the economic activity participation rate of women in their 30s rose steadily from 52.6 percent in 2012 to 58.3 percent in 2017, and then to 61.2 percent in 2022. But the rate for women in their 30s with children was 53.5 percent last year, a whopping 25.2 percentage points lower than women without children (78.7 percent). In other words, the damage done to women’s careers due to childbirth and childcare is still serious.

Although there is a growing perception that both parents should share parenting duties, most women say that they give up or sacrifice their careers because of the gender wage gap.

We have lived through the times when it was fine to offer a higher salary and promotion opportunities to those who abandon their family and devote more time to the company. They were mostly men. The women who did not want to fall behind had two choices: either outsource childcare or not have children. If you cannot afford the first, the answer is obvious.

The increase in women’s economic activity is an irreversible trend. The important thing is to break the vicious cycle of “career interruption after childbirth or worsened treatment at workplaces leading to a decision not to have children by learning.”

Harvard University Professor Claudia Goldin, this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, said that rewards for so-called “greedy work” should be reduced, and flexible jobs that allow women to maintain both work and family must increase.

When women want to have children while still working, the low birth rate and low growth rate can improve. To do so, working women with children in their 30s and older must continue their economic activities and stand up to fight unfair discrimination. Only then can the younger generation decide to have children. I feel determined in many ways ahead of the birth of my second child.