Forty one percent of South Korean respondents answered that women’s role in society is a nice wife and mother. (image: Kobizmedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Sep. 13 (Korea Bizwire) - Ipsos, a global market research firm headquartered in Paris, France, announced on September 11 that it conducted a survey on the role of women in society. When 16,000 men and women across 20 countries were asked, one in three agreed that women had better play a role as a good wife and mother in society.
According to the report, 73 percent of Russian respondents agreed that women should be a good wife and mother rather than working, taking the first place among 20 nations, followed by India (56%) and China (54%).
Forty one percent of South Korean respondents answered that women’s role in society is a nice wife and mother, ranking No. 4. In contrast, advanced countries which achieved gender equality disagreed on the concept that being a good wife and mother is women’s primary role in society. Only 9 percent of Swedish people agreed with the idea followed by Spain (12%), France (16%) and Italy (22%).
Unlike general opinions of Koreans on the idea, however, economic factors make the number of Korean stay-at-home mothers decreasing. The Statistics Korea announced on June 18 that moms staying at home for doing housework and raising children amounted to 7,082,000, down by 190,000, or 2.6 percent, compared with the same period last year.
The decreasing number is reportedly attributed to economic difficulties. In order to maintain the current standard of living in Korea, both wife and husband are forced to go into the labor market to earn money. Moreover, the government has put forth an effort to create more part-time jobs for women who used to work, which temporarily boosted the number of working women.
Forty one percent of South Korean respondents answered that women’s role in society is a nice wife and mother, ranking No. 4. In contrast, advanced countries which achieved gender equality disagreed on the concept that being a good wife and mother is women’s primary role in society. (image: 藍川芥 aikawake/flickr)
France, where most of the people disagree with the traditional concept of women’s role, has similar aspect to the number of women staying at home for family. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Economics Studies in France, only 14 percent of French women aged 20 to 59 stayed at home as of 2011, 10 percentage points lower than 1991. The French statistics cited that the main reasons for the result were that more women work and fewer women get married than in the past. Unlike Korea, only less educated or immigrant women are likely to stay at home for family.
By Veronica Huh (veronicah@koreabizwire.com)
