Children learn to play traditional Korean instruments at an elementary school in Damyang, South Jeolla Province, on June 7, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 22 (Korea Bizwire) — About a fifth of women with children up to sixth grade left their jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a poll showed Tuesday.
The Korean Women’s Development Institute, a state-run think tank, said it conducted a survey on 722 such women from November to December and found that 21.3 percent had quit their jobs between March and November 2020.
The rate was higher among women with babies and toddlers at 22.5 percent than among mothers with children in elementary school at 19.9 percent.
Women with three or more children had the highest rate of resignation at 27.5 percent, followed by mothers of two at 22.6 percent and mothers of one at 19.8 percent.
The survey also showed that 49.3 percent of women with children up to sixth grade of elementary school faced various adjustments at work during the pandemic.
More than 47 percent said they experienced late payment of wages, while 45.8 percent said they were advised to resign, fired or had their contracts terminated.
Around 80 percent of the women said their child care responsibilities grew during the pandemic.
“As business conditions deteriorated at workplaces, numerous work adjustments were made in a gender discriminatory fashion,” the think tank said.
“In order for women to establish themselves as full workers in the labor market, it must be practically possible for work and child care to coexist along with an equal division of child care between men and women,” it added.
(Yonhap)
