University of Silesia in Katowice

Professional activity of contemporary Korean women

| Weronika Cygan |

South Korea has already charmed millions of people around the world. We listen to K-pop, watch Korean films and TV series (known as K-dramas), use Korean electronic devices, drive vehicles made in Korea, and use Korean beauty products. But what do we know about the very country itself?

Soft power is a powerful political tool because appealing pop culture makes it significantly easier to attract numerous aficionados and potential allies. Being enthusiastic and excited about what we see on TV screens or in music videos, we often neglect to see the bigger picture, where social and political events are as important as the culture. South Korea is still no friend of gender equality, and women have but to struggle with their difficult professional and social conditions. Disproportions in gender inequity are visible in various spheres of life. Katarzyna Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof. from the Faculty of Social Sciences has taken a closer look at South Korean women’s work conditions and opportunities and whether their situation has improved throughout the years; all that within the 2nd edition of the ‘Freedom of Research’ call for proposals.

Katarzyna Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof., at Dongduk Women’s University | Private gallery

WERONIKA CYGAN: You have studied the professional activity of contemporary Korean women within the ‘Freedom of Research’ call for proposals. Are women able to fulfil themselves both at work and in their families in a society that is perceived as strongly conservative?

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: My research interests have revolved around South Korean society for approximately eight years. One of the areas I study is the professional activity of contemporary Korean women. I went on two research trips to two Korean universities: Dongduk Women’s University in Seoul and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. I have made my last trip within the ‘Freedom of Research,’ and I have engaged in science and research consultations at those universities and the Korean Women’s Development Institute. The consultations were about conclusions in the area of professional activity of contemporary Korean women that might be drawn after my statistical analysis of data included in databases of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families.

During research consultation with other professors, we have concluded that there are visible changes in the family and professional spheres of Korean society. Analyses have shown that Korean women change their opinions about marriage and having children; nevertheless, these changes are extremely slow. The research has also shown that the level of education has a significant influence on certain aspects: the higher the level of education, the more women disagreed that marriage is a necessity, and more women believed they do not have to have children. The professional activity of contemporary Korean women is how they express their struggle for gender equality in a society that has been dominated by inequality between men and women ever since, a society based on the socially adopted Confucian values that indicate women’s and men’s roles.

WERONIKA CYGAN: Does it mean that South Korea’s modernity is displayed solely in its economy and the latest technologies but—despite all—is firmly stuck in conservatism when it comes to its culture and customs?

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: Confucianism includes a socio-political programme, economy, education, an ethical system and religious tradition. It used to be a social norm for Korean society to hold to these rules over the centuries; it was a religiously respected set of rules, and one must not have acted otherwise. However, the contemporary times and the shift from the traditional model of a family into the egalitarian one, along with the transition from collective culture into the individualistic one in Western Europe countries and the United States, have shown through globalisation, urbanisation and mediatisation that these changes are being done in all developed countries. After all, South Korea belongs to the group of most developed countries regarding economy; however, neither did a change in their culture nor family model occur.

In Asian countries, Confucianism functions as a fundamental ideology and guiding principle; it was to determine rules, norms and models of behaviour in family and society throughout centuries. This ideology is deeply rooted in the collectivistic Korean society, which starts, however, facing the contemporary diffusion of liberal and individualistic values coming from Western Europe and the United States and influencing Korea. One of these values is gender equality which should be respected in the family, at work and within society. Males have been dominating Korea’s social, professional, and family spheres for centuries. Today we observe changes in Korean society in terms of women’s professional activity, as the number of women active in the labour market increases each year. It seems that this patriarchal social system—in which only a man deals with the ‘external family affairs,’ namely the work and livelihood of the family, and a woman deals with the ‘internal affairs,’ specifically household work, along with children’s upbringing and their education—is being chipped.

Jogyesa Temple in Seoul | Photo by K. Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof.

K. Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof., at Jogyesa Temple | Private gallery

WERONIKA CYGAN: Do these changes occur solely in Koreans’ mentality, or are they visible in law as well?

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: The Korean government responds to women’s difficult situation in the job market by creating a policy based on gender equality rules and a work-life balance policy. Creating a policy guided by the no-discrimination-at-the-workplace principle has become a strategic goal to be achieved; the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) and the Ministry of Employment and Labour (MOEL) are the entities expanding and developing ‘Framework Plan for Gender Equality Policies’ and addressing woman’s labour market participation. Although this policy has been carried out for several decades already, the statistics show that the conditions in contemporary Korea’s labour market still severely discriminate against women. The increase in the level of education among young women is one of the factors that contributed to raising the awareness regarding their rights in the society.

The exact data about the gender wage gap is indicated by the OECD statistical data; the chart shows that South Korea suffers from the highest wage gap between men and women, which stood at 32.5% in 2019. To compare, all the other OECD member nations averaged 12.9%, which only shows how severe of a problem Korea has. In 2021, the country had the highest glass ceiling index, ranking the lowest among 29 OECD member nations, which means that Korean women still have to choose between a family and a career. What is more, the 2021 global gender gap index ranks Korea in the 103rd position among 156 countries. All this shows that South Korea, despite its high level of economic development in terms of gender equality, is at rock bottom among all OECD rankings. This not only poses a social problem but also a considerable challenge for the Korean government.

Korean food is increasingly popular around the world. Here dolsot-bibimbap – rice with vegetables and a raw egg served in a scorching-hot stone pot | Photo by K. Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz

WERONIKA CYGAN: Can Korean women’s situation be compared to the conditions of Polish women in the labour market?

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: When it comes to Polish women, their situation in the labour market is more favourable. In 2021, the gender wage gap in Poland was just under 9%, which is almost four times less than in Korea. Furthermore, Poland ranked 9th when it comes to the glass ceiling index, which indicates that we do have decent gender equality conditions in the professional sphere. We have also had a quicker transformation from a traditional family model to the egalitarian one, where partners share their household chores and childcare while being engaged in their professional life. Polish women have more support from their men, and the current social expectations from a father and husband differ from those in the past. Nowadays, we can talk about a new father figure, who is involved in childcare, child education and helping with household chores.

Such a figure is absent in Korea; it does not even function in the social perception of and expectations towards men. Of course, some Korean women would want that because they have the comparison of a man’s role in family and society in other EU countries or the USA. It also seems that the young generation of Koreans is eager to change; unfortunately, the crucial reforms are stopped by tremendous social pressure from traditional roles of men and women. It creates a situation where women who decide to fulfil themselves in the professional sphere refrain from starting a family and become singles, which consequently translates into the lowest birth rate of 0.81 in the world. It is worth emphasising that people in Korea are born inside marriage; supposing that Korean women are more and more likely to decide not to start a family for the sake of personal and professional fulfilment, the number of born kids will be continuously decreasing.

Panoramic view of Seoul | Photo by Katarzyna Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz

WERONIKA CYGAN: How is Korean women’s professional activity affects their private life and motherhood? Their dilemmas in choosing a family or career are present even in Korean pop culture. In one of the 2020 TV series, Itaewon Class, we are able to watch a lot of strong and ambitious women. One of them manages to take a very high position at a company, but she has to sacrifice her family for her career, although she really wants to have children.

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: It is extremely tough for women in South Korea to combine work and family life, and it is not necessarily well perceived by society and family. Most women who decide to pursue a professional career give up on having a husband and children. Some married women work professionally; when they get pregnant, however, they quit their job to take care of the house, children and husband. It’s harder for women in Korea to maintain a work-life balance due to a work culture that completely differs from that in Poland. First of all, work is vastly dominated by men; second, the culture requires employees to finish work no earlier than their superiors. And afterwards, co-workers are often expected to go out together for a dinner one should not skip; all this causes them to be back home very late. Working under such conditions, married women—who additionally have children—have limited capabilities and time to take care of them and do household duties. According to the statistics, Korean society spends the biggest number of hours at work among all OECD countries.

When it comes to Korean society’s attitude towards professionally active women, we may say it is relatively neutral and sometimes even somewhat positive towards single women. However, the situation changes drastically when a woman changes her marital status and gets married; then, the attitude of society—and often even of the closest relatives—is rather negative, and only to a small extent neutral.

K. Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof., at the Blue House, the official residence of the president of South Korea in Seoul | private gallery

Korean cinematography has joined the battle to change the social environment into a more women-friendly one. Four important films hit the big screen in 2020: Vertigo, Baseball Girl, Fighter and Woman Who Run, each of them with a woman’s leading role who strives to fulfil her dreams, make her plans come true, who has decided to live a life where no one tells her what they should do. Increasingly more directors and writers join the struggle for women’s rights, actually. There are two books touching upon the tough fate of women in Korean society: Kim Jiyoung. Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo and If I Had Your Face by a Korean-American writer Frances Cha, and both have become last’s year most widely-read books; this only proves that woman’s emancipation is an important topic for social discourse.

WERONIKA CYGAN: Does it mean that Korean women are deprived of taking maternity leave? Does the law not support mothers in any way?

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: Korean women can decide to take maternity leave, although it works differently than in Poland. They are eligible for ninety days of leave, with sixty days paid fully and the other thirty paid partially. All this provided that a woman has been employed at a given position for at least a year. In Poland, however, when a woman gives birth, she is eligible for twenty weeks of paid leave regardless of how long she has been working for a company. Generally, Korean women hardly ever decide to take maternity leave. The social pressure often does not allow them to make use of their rights because it may result in losing their job – it might be a sign of no loyalty and a message to the superior that a workwoman does not attach the proper importance to her job duties and puts her family before. One has to remember that in South Korea work is often put before everything else, and having a position in a thriving and prosperous company indicates high social status. Losing a job, on the other hand, means a big failure for a Korean.

WERONIKA CYGAN: How about pro-women activism; is it in line with the agenda of politicians? Yoon Suk Yeol became the president of South Korea last year and he calls himself an advocate of a more conservative approach towards women in society.

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: Mun Jae In, the president in 2017–2022, was very active for equal rights for women; he pledged to fill at least 30% of the Cabinet with female ministers. And he kept his word. It is hard to foresee the future because the current president Yoon Suk Yeol indeed declared himself against the feminist movement, but it has not been even a year since his term yet, so it is hard to draw any conclusions. I believe that Korean women will fight for their rights to be respected; however, if the president introduced any changes in the existing ministries—especially in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family—women’s possibilities in the struggle for equality might be hindered or even limited. We must remember that a woman’s position in Korean society, family and professional life has been inferior to a men’s for centuries due to the Confucian principles, which still set out the social rules and norms of conduct in each sphere of life. Of course, changes are being seen, but nonetheless gender inequality is still very visible.

Myeong-dong District in Seoul | Photo by K. Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof.

Statue of King Sejong, the creator of hangul, at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul | Photo by K. Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof.

WERONIKA CYGAN: How have you become interested in this research issue? Do you plan to continue your work within the ‘Freedom of Research?’

KATARZYNA JUSZCZYK-FRELKIEWICZ, PHD, ASSOC. PROF.: While choosing my research question, I, above all, followed my research curiosity about Korean society, a subject that has not yet been extensively studied by Polish researchers. And so I decided to investigate a broader perspective of the Korean family and professional activity of contemporary Korean women, which I have done and presented in many published research papers. I believe that my interest in Korean society was an excellent choice in hindsight; in recent years, one may observe an increase in Korean equity and the country’s investments in Poland, and South Korea is on the list of major foreign investors in Poland. Good international relations and economic cooperation between Poland and South Korea result in an increasing number of economic immigrants from Korea, which consequently translates into a constant increase in Korean residents; all this makes it only reasonable to learn about how Koreans function in the family and professional sphere.

I certainly plan to continue my work within the ‘Freedom of Research’ because they provide an enormous chance for scientific development. My research trip was a great opportunity to strengthen international collaboration with scientists from South Korea. Since the issue I am interested in concerns a society of different culture than the Socratic European culture, research consultations with scientists based in Korea who experience these changes as their complete participants seem to be all the more necessary.

WERONIKA CYGAN: Thank you very much for the interview

Katarzyna Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof. | Photo by Rafał Opalski

Katarzyna Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz, PhD, Assoc. Prof., EMBA degree – associate professor at the Institute of Sociology, USil Faculty of Social Sciences. Graduate of Gdansk Foundation for Management Development (2019). The Head of Postgraduate Studies LIDER at the University of Silesia in Katowice since 2018.

Her research interests revolve around contemporary Korean society, in particular around the family and professional activity of women. She has authored several research papers on Korean society. She has been involved in international collaboration with scientists from Dongduk Women’s University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and Namseoul University in Seoul. In 2018, she did a research stay at HANKUK University of Foreign Studies, during which she carried out empirical research among students on marriage and the family, and participated in scientific and research meetings; she also participated in a scientific meeting at Dongduk Women’s University, Seoul. In 2022, she completed a research trip to South Korea within the ‘Freedom of Research’ call for proposals.

Apart from Korean society, her interests include Slovak, Spanish, and Austrian societies.  She has carried out comparative studies in Poland and Slovakia within the Visegrad Scholarship Programme on the phenomenon of cohabitation as an alternative form of marriage and the family. Her research results have been published in an author monograph entitled Cohabitation in Poland and Slovak Republic: a sociological study in student circles.

She has written several scientific publications in the field of Spanish society within international cooperation with scientists from the University of Barcelona, ​​including: Do we want children? Attitudes towards having or not having children: a comparative perspective on Spain and Poland, The end of ‘Till death do us part’? Determinants for living in a cohabitation union in Spain and Poland, Welfare State Support for Families: a Comparative Family Policies Analysis in Poland and Spain, and The shape of the contemporary family in Poland and Spain. She did an internship at the University of Barcelona in 2022.

She has been engaged in international collaboration with scientists from Johannes Kepler University of Linz,
Austria, with whom she published a joint article entitled Gender revolution in Austria and Poland? Changes in egalitarian attitudes and behaviour in the perspective of the theoretical insights by Goldscheider, Bernhardt and Lappegård.

She has delivered several lectures for students of the University of Barcelona and the University of the Peloponnese within the Erasmus+ programme for academic staff.

She has also delivered lectures at Korean universities: Dongduk Women’s University, Seoul, and HANKUK University of Foreign Studies, Seoul.

She has taken part in many international conferences: the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) in 2022, organised in Barcelona, and the 5th International Seminar Political and Economic Self-Constitution: Citizenship, Identity and Education organised by the University of the Peloponnese in Greece. A several-time participant in the International Asian Congress.

Her interests also include issues in soft skills such as non-verbal communication, public speaking, self-promotion and self-presentation, business image, leadership, team building, and talent management. She has completed a two-week ‘Regular soft-skills course’ at Wageningen University in the Netherlands financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the European Union.