Single Korean adults are becoming more and more nonchalant about marriage. Are growing trends of herbivorous men and carnivorous women actually contributing to this phenomenon? (image credit: by Rystheguy @ Wikimedia Commons)
SEOUL, South Korea, Aug 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Single Korean adults are becoming more and more nonchalant about marriage. Are growing trends of herbivorous men and carnivorous women actually contributing to this phenomenon? As reported in the preceding article concerning herbivorous men and carnivorous women in Korea, it seems that Korean men are becoming more inclined to hobby-related activities and more Korean women are building their lives centered around their career success. However, we also detect a trend that growing economic bur-dens are driving young Koreans away from marriage, thus resulting in more tendencies of herbivorous men and carnivorous women. This article will try to shed light on the indifference toward marriage and why it has become that way.
When responding to the question, ‘How do you think about the increasing age of young people at the time of their first marriage and the tendency among them not to get married?’ more than half, or 55.3 percent of all respondents, both young unmarried men and women, replied that they are not concerned about this trend, illustrating the general mood. However, there is a slight difference in opinion between men and women. In the case of men, 49.3 percent answered that they are concerned about this trend while 61.1 percent of women respondents answered that they are not worried. Among the married population, concerns regarding this trend was high among those over the age of 40 (76.3%) and comparatively low among those in their 20s and 30s (49.6%), showing that those in their 20s and 30s are in general less concerned about marriage.
Different shades of concerns on marriage can also be seen among herbivorous men and non-herbivorous men, and among carnivorous women and non-carnivorous women. More men in herbivorous inclination replied that they were reluctant toward marriage because they wished to continue the free lifestyle as a single compared to non-herbivorous men. Non-herbivorous men were reluctant due to the burden of saving for marriage such as buying a house at 71.1 percent. While herbivorous men considered the burden of saving for marriage the biggest reason at 63.9 percent, the free lifestyle of being single was also an important reason at 15.5 percent. Furthermore, more herbivorous men considered raising a child an issue at 5.2 percent compared to non-herbivorous men.
More women with carnivorous tendencies considered saving money for marriage such as buying a house an important issue compared to non-carnivorous women. As much as 18.1 percent of non-carnivorous women chose saving money as a reason for reluctance toward marriage, while carnivorous women were more sensitive to this issue with 25.3 percent choosing this as a reason. Furthermore, carnivorous women were less sensitive than non-carnivorous women regarding tensions with in-laws at 5.1 percent.
Concerns regarding late marriages (postponed marriages) and non-marriages (not marrying) also differ between herbivorous men and non-herbivorous men, and also between carnivorous women and non-carnivorous women. Herbivorous men were in fact more worried about the recent trend of late and non-marriages compared to non-herbivorous men. Meanwhile, 46.1 percent of non-herbivorous men answered that they were concerned about late and non-marriages, while among herbivorous men it was 56.7 percent. It seems that non-herbivorous men tend to consider the recent trend of late and non-marriages to be a natural phenomenon than herbivorous men. On the other hand, as shown by their reasons for having the tendencies of an herbivorous man such as the burdens of work and tasks in the office or economic difficulties, it seems that these men are concerned about the fact that they are unable to go out for date thus the reason for their postponed marriages is unrelated to their will.
Women with carnivorous tendencies were more concerned about the recent late and non-marriages than non-carnivorous women. While 34.8 percent of non-carnivorous women responded that they were concerned about late and non-marriages, more carnivorous women, or 46.8 percent, replied that they were worried with these issues. While both carnivorous and non-carnivorous women were not so worried about recent trends compared with situations among men, it appears that non-carnivorous women were considering late and non-marriages to be a natural phenomenon than carnivorous women.
Saving money for marriage is a factor that cannot be neglected. The biggest reason why people in their 20s and 30s are reluctant to tie the knot is the burden of having to buy a new house for marriage and child-raising for men and women respectively. When answering to the question, ‘What is the biggest reason you are reluctant to marriage?’ the most common answer among men was saving money for marriage such as for buying a new house at 68.0 percent, followed by a lack of job at 16.4 percent, and continuing the free lifestyle of being single at 12.0 percent. On the other hand, raising a child was the biggest concern among women at 38.0 percent, followed by continuing the free lifestyle of being single at 25.6 percent and saving money for marriage such as buying a new house at 20.5 percent. Putting up with living with in-laws was also at 6.8 percent.
There seems to be a strong belief that men should take the responsibility for more than women regarding the cost of buying a new house, the largest part of marriage costs. When asked the question, ‘How do you think the cost of buying a new house for marriage should be shared between men and women?’ sharing the cost evenly was the most common among both men and women at 46.2 percent, but in general the belief was that men should take the burden more. However, the opinion that the cost of buying a new house for marriage should be shared equally was virtually the same between men and women, and there seems to be a social consensus regarding this issue. The survey also shows that more men than women think about relying on their parents for more than half of the total cost of marriage. However, 26.8 percent of men and 30.8 percent of women replied that they would seek no support from their parents. With an impression that men should prepare the new house for marriage still prevalent, it seems that men tend to be more reliant on their parents due to the large cost involving buying a house.
Men with herbivorous tendencies tended to be more self-reliant in buying a house for marriage than non-herbivorous men. As much as 43.0 percent of non-herbivorous men replied that men should pay more of the cost of buying a house for marriage compared to 37.1 percent among herbivorous men. Meanwhile, 43.8 percent of non-herbivorous men and 49.5 percent of herbivorous men said that both the man and the woman should account for half of the cost of buying a house for marriage equally. This shows that herbivorous men are shedding the traditional perception that men should buy the house for marriage more than non-herbivorous men.
Herbivorous men are expecting more support from their parents than non-herbivorous men. A total of 36.8 percent of non-herbivorous men replied that they were expecting their parents to support more than half of the total cost of marriage, while 41.7 percent of herbivorous men said as such. On the other hand, 28.1 percent of non-herbivorous men and 25.0 percent of herbivorous men expected no support at all from their parents. One can draw a conclusion from this that herbivorous men are more reliant on their parents for the cost of marriage than non-herbivorous men.
People expected that they would require approximately five years after employment to save up for the costs of marriage, and this was more or less the same among men and women. When asked the question, ‘Excluding support from parents and bank loans, how long do you think you need to save up for the cost of marriage?’ approximately 70.1 percent of men and 67.4 percent of women expected it to take longer than five years. Thus the result that both men and women strongly prefer double-income households is a due course. When asked the question, ‘How do you feel about double-income households?’ 83.1 percent of men and 89.7 percent of women answered that they preferred double-income households. However, not such a small group of Koreans, 16.0 percent of men and 8.1 percent of women, still think that women should be exclusively in charge of raising children and other household chores.
Regarding the level of education of a partner, most respondents said that it should be similar to theirs, while men tended to think that it wasn’t an issue more than women. When asked the question, ‘What level of education do you think your partner should at least have?’ most women replied that it should at least be similar to her level of education at 57.7 percent, followed by higher than her at 20.1 percent, not a factor at 13.7 percent, and lower than her at 8.5 percent. Most men replied that it should be similar to his at 36.6 percent, followed by lower than him at 36.2 percent, not a factor at 26.3 percent, and should be higher than him at 0.9 percent. Regarding age of the partner, most replied that it wasn’t a factor, though men also preferred younger women while women preferred older men.
There is a large difference in opinion regarding the annual salary of their partner between men and women, with men wishing for at least 26 million won, while women prefer at least 37 million won. When asked the question, ‘At least how high do you think your partner’s annual salary should be?’ 72.2 percent of women and 41.7 percent of men replied at least higher than 30 million won and up to 50 million won. Meanwhile, 19.1 percent of women and 3.1 percent of men preferred more than 50 million won, while 8.7 percent of women and 55.2 percent of men would be content with less than 30 million won.
However, when considering the base salary for college graduates at small- and medium-sized business is only 16 million-24 million won based on a survey conducted by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business of 500 companies, it is clear that men and women have slightly unrealistic wishes from their partners.
The trend of herbivorous men and carnivorous women is not a temporary phenomenon, and a policy directive must be established with consistent monitoring of this trend. Joblessness among the youth that causes men to be more herbivorous is continuously increasing as is the economic recession, and consequently the number of herbivorous men is also on the rise. It is advisable that a statistical database is created for not only herbivorous men but also carnivorous women from which policy insight on future problems related to marriage and birthrate can be derived.
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