The 2017 figures, and the years just behind them

Women's poverty, in this account, is not only a thin purse. It is shaped by patriarchy and by sex discrimination in the labour market: more women at work, and still worse terms. In Women's Lives in Statistics 2017, released in June by Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the women's employment rate was 50.2 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from the year before, but the quality of work had not improved. Women in non-regular jobs numbered 3,538,000, against 2,906,000 men, up 148,000 from the previous year, and the women's count had risen for four years running since 3,154,000 in 2012.

As of that material, Korea had held the widest gender wage gap in the OECD for a sixteenth straight year. Women's average monthly pay was 1,869,000 won, 64.1 percent of men's 2,918,000. In 2015 work–family indicators, men in dual-income households did 40 minutes of housework a day, women 194 minutes. Long hours and unpaid overtime made the gap harder to close. In 2012, women's labour-force participation was 49.9 percent, men's 73.3 percent; among people aged 15 to 64, 55.2 percent of women and 77.6 percent of men. One bright line in that 2012 survey was that women in their twenties, at 62.9 percent, overtook men of the same age, at 62.6 percent, for the first time.

Career breaks, unpaid work, and a wall at the top

In the 2017 volume, 21.4 percent of women in non-regular work were in their forties, 22.4 percent in their fifties, and 21.4 percent aged sixty or over, so more than 65 percent were forty or older — the years after childbirth and care, when the jobs on offer are often non-regular. The wage gap also widened among high earners. The essay calls for job analysis in sectors where women cluster, real force behind affirmative employment measures, social protection around pregnancy and childcare, and recognition of unpaid housework. A fully rolled-out free childcare scheme for ages 0 to 5, and a jobs roadmap of that period, were hoped to help; they are not treated here as a later official outcome.

The 2013 'era of a woman president' is noted, with the remark that women still had little say in making law and running firms, and that the share of women in the National Assembly was then among the world's lowest. Unless the Moon Jae-in government reversed a twenty-year habit of treating women's work as cheap and unstable labour, the writer feared, those were the jobs that would keep multiplying. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. Statistics Korea and Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Women's Lives in Statistics 2017 (released June): women's employment rate 50.2 percent; women in non-regular work 3,538,000 versus men 2,906,000, up 148,000; rising since 3,154,000 in 2012; OECD gender wage gap first for a sixteenth year as of that material; women's average monthly pay 1,869,000 won, 64.1 percent of men's 2,918,000; non-regular shares by age in the 2017 volume. 2015 work–family indicators: dual-income housework 40 minutes (men) and 194 minutes (women). 2012 labour-force participation: women 49.9 percent, men 73.3 percent; ages 15–64, 55.2 and 77.6; women in their twenties 62.9 percent, men 62.6 percent. Causes: patriarchy, labour-market discrimination, career breaks, unpaid housework. Period remarks on free childcare for ages 0–5, the 2013 presidency, and Moon Jae-in labour policy, not later official outcomes.

Last updated: 14 November 2026