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Video Description

Type: KIHASA Policy Featurette

Topic: Career Break of an Average of 7.9 Years due to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Childcare--What Happens Next?

Guest Speakers: Jeon Yoon-jung, Legislative Researcher, National Assembly Research Service; Professor Yoo Sam-hyun, Hanyang University

Transcript

Jeon:

The breaks in women's careers due to pregnancy and childbirth are quite long. They span about 7 to 8 years―7.9 years on average. After such breaks, women often do not return to their previous jobs or occupations. Instead, many of them end up in unstable, short-term, or low-wage employment.

Yoo:

Even when we look at the most recent data from 2022 and 2023, the government reports that around 17% of women experience a career interruption. This proportion is high enough  to lower overall wage levels for women.

Jeon:

Many women today are confronted with challenges such as the M-shaped curve in employment, prolonged career breaks, and the ofteninevitable exit from the labor market following pregnancy and childbirth. Faced with this reality, they often end up adjusting their plans for having children―delaying childbirth or even deciding not to have children at all―because they feel they have no other choice.