Rbe slim, prepare meals in advance for your husband for the days when you will be in the hospital, continue to do your hair … The controversy over this sexist advice given to pregnant women by the city of Seoul highlights the growing number of South Koreans who do not want children, says The Guardian.A few weeks earlier, the government announced that the country’s population had declined for the first time, registering only 276,000 births for 308,000 deaths. Couples do not feel encouraged to have children: almost 20% of couples married since 2015 still had no children in 2020. This is five points more than in 2012.
Financial incentives
However, the government tried to incite the population with an envelope of 1 million won (or 750 euros) per pregnant woman as well as 6 million won (or 4,500 euros) for married couples who stop working. three months each to take care of their newborn baby. But “pregnant women face serious disadvantages in the world of work in South Korea,” said Kim Seong-kon, professor of English at Seoul National University.
But, he adds, “many South Korean women have jobs today” and “it is extremely difficult to work and raise a child” in South Korea. For example, “many childcare facilities are not trustworthy and it is difficult to access the good ones,” says Kim Seong-kon.
Children, these “luxury products”
Many financial obstacles such as school fees and housing are also mentioned by some South Koreans. Yoo Nara “decided after much soul-searching” not to have children. “It would require too much sacrifice and suffering from me,” said this woman to the Guardian, estimating that in her country children are like “luxury goods” that she “cannot afford”.
And the 37-year-old South Korean remembers the role her mother played as a child. She “worked non-stop” including during “visits from the in-laws. [durant lesquelles] my dad and her family were sitting down to eat and chat as she ran around ”. A pattern that many South Koreans refuse to reproduce: in 2019, the country’s fertility rate was 0.92, the lowest among OECD countries.
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