작년 한 해 동안 휴가의 상당부분을 엉뚱한? 곳에 쓸 수밖에 없어 정작 제대로 된 휴가에 많이 쓰지를 못했다. 상당히 억울하고 화가 났는데 비단 나만의 일은 아닌 것 같아 찬찬히 생각해보고 자료를 찾아보고 깨달음에 이르렀다. 고정된 성 역할이 나비효과로 이런 상황을 만들었다고 결론내리게 되었다. 사실 이미 전에 글로 누군가 이야기한걸 봤지만 직접 겪고 찾아보고 결론내리니 감회가 새롭고 화도 많이나고?? 하여튼 참 할말이 너무 많아 다 할 수가 없었다.
Last year, I used a substantial portion of my paid leave to handle personal matters, such as waiting at home for my air conditioner to be installed, going to government offices for some documents, or taking my car in for routine maintenance. I felt bad about wasting my vacation days on such mundane personal matters. I would have rather relaxed or gone on a trip, which I believe is the true purpose of vacation. I pondered what had caused this situation. It was because I was living alone, and I had to do all these things by myself. At least I had a bit more paid leave than my doctor friends in university hospitals or other friends who are office workers. I managed to deal with personal matters while sacrificing my vacation days. But I also had less paid leave when I was working at the university hospital, and I'll be working there again in a few months. When I make that move, dealing with personal matters will probably be challenging.
The country where I live—South Korea—is well-known for long working hours and short paid leave. If I'm required to use my few vacation days for personal reasons other than having a getaway, how can I recharge myself enough to continue my job? I observed how other Korean men responded to similar situations.
When some urgent matter came up outside of work, three different options seemed to be available for unmarried Korean men in general. Many of them just ignored the pressing need and procrastinated. Some used their paid leave to deal with the matter by themselves. The others sought help from their parents. (I mean, mostly their homemaker mothers.)
For married men, there were generally two types of responses. In a single-income family with a male breadwinner, the female counterpart usually handled the problem. For dual-income households, the partner with a more flexible work schedule seemed to sacrifice their personal time. However, in many cases, women took care of these mundane problems.
I admit my experience is limited, but at least from what I observed, in most cases, women were the indispensable problem solvers as mothers and wives. Then, I researched my idea further and came to a larger realization.
Up until then, I thought that Korea had reached its position as the 12th largest economy in the world on the foundation of numerous workers doing excessive overtime. However, there must also be priceless sacrifices of women behind the scenes as mothers and wives, which were never taken seriously. Members of the younger generation who were taught fixed gender roles tend to perceive that breadwinner is a man's role and homemaker is a woman's role. And this idea is still firmly entrenched in Korean society. In this social system, male breadwinners aren't allowed longer paid leave because their partners, female homemakers, are supposed to take charge of all the remaining domestic tasks from looking after children to cooking. Besides, even Korean women who start working after completing their education are likely to leave their jobs after childbirth.
The data that I found supports my idea. The gender employment gap is significant in Korea. The employment rate of men was 75.9% and 57.2% for women in 2018. When it comes to the employment status of parents with children in 2014, single-income households were the most common in Korea, comprising 46.5%, followed by dual-income households at 20.6%. In comparison, in other OECD member countries, an average of 41.9% of households were dual-income and 30.8% were single-income. According to 2019 data from OECD, Korean women spent 4.4 times as much time as men did on housework. Korea ranked 86 among 102 countries on sharing household duties. Korean women spent 34 minutes more in paid and unpaid work combined. In 2018, only 42.4% of Korean women took childcare leave at small and medium-sized businesses, but 85.6% took it at major companies. 69.5% of women who worked at small and medium-sized businesses continued to work after childcare leave, and 87.4% returned to their jobs at major companies.
Can you see what is really taking place in Korean society? Overall, men are becoming exhausted at work without adequate rest periods, while women are stuck as homemakers and have their careers disrupted. Some working mothers are struggling to juggle their work and domestic duties, but their male counterparts are almost free from housework. To strike a balance between work and life for both genders, employment policies should allow for equal opportunities and household duties should be shared evenly. Besides, this is not just about work-and-life balance. Countries with more paid leave and lower levels of gender inequality show higher labor productivity. Korea ranked 29 among 36 OECD member countries in 2017.
Sadly, these problems are even more complicated and entangled than I mentioned, so I don't anticipate that things will change anytime soon.
https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm#indicator-chart
https://www.oecd.org/gender/data/balancingpaidworkunpaidworkandleisure.htm
http://www.donga.com/news/article/all/20190922/97522222/1
https://news.joins.com/article/21722217
https://www.index.go.kr/potal/stts/idxMain/selectPoSttsIdxSearch.do?idx_cd=4212&stts_cd=421201
https://www.womennews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=193446
**This writing is part of my learning process. When I choose a topic to write about, I google and read related articles to learn natural English expressions. I try to make an impromptu speech based on what I learned. Then write down the script. I review my writing and check grammar as far as I can. I have it revised by someone whose first language is English. Lastly, I read aloud the writing many times until I can memorize it.
Last year, I used a substantial portion of my paid leave to handle personal matters, such as waiting at home for my air conditioner to be installed, going to government offices for some documents, or taking my car in for routine maintenance. I felt bad about wasting my vacation days on such mundane personal matters. I would have rather relaxed or gone on a trip, which I believe is the true purpose of vacation. I pondered what had caused this situation. It was because I was living alone, and I had to do all these things by myself. At least I had a bit more paid leave than my doctor friends in university hospitals or other friends who are office workers. I managed to deal with personal matters while sacrificing my vacation days. But I also had less paid leave when I was working at the university hospital, and I'll be working there again in a few months. When I make that move, dealing with personal matters will probably be challenging.
The country where I live—South Korea—is well-known for long working hours and short paid leave. If I'm required to use my few vacation days for personal reasons other than having a getaway, how can I recharge myself enough to continue my job? I observed how other Korean men responded to similar situations.
When some urgent matter came up outside of work, three different options seemed to be available for unmarried Korean men in general. Many of them just ignored the pressing need and procrastinated. Some used their paid leave to deal with the matter by themselves. The others sought help from their parents. (I mean, mostly their homemaker mothers.)
For married men, there were generally two types of responses. In a single-income family with a male breadwinner, the female counterpart usually handled the problem. For dual-income households, the partner with a more flexible work schedule seemed to sacrifice their personal time. However, in many cases, women took care of these mundane problems.
I admit my experience is limited, but at least from what I observed, in most cases, women were the indispensable problem solvers as mothers and wives. Then, I researched my idea further and came to a larger realization.
Up until then, I thought that Korea had reached its position as the 12th largest economy in the world on the foundation of numerous workers doing excessive overtime. However, there must also be priceless sacrifices of women behind the scenes as mothers and wives, which were never taken seriously. Members of the younger generation who were taught fixed gender roles tend to perceive that breadwinner is a man's role and homemaker is a woman's role. And this idea is still firmly entrenched in Korean society. In this social system, male breadwinners aren't allowed longer paid leave because their partners, female homemakers, are supposed to take charge of all the remaining domestic tasks from looking after children to cooking. Besides, even Korean women who start working after completing their education are likely to leave their jobs after childbirth.
The data that I found supports my idea. The gender employment gap is significant in Korea. The employment rate of men was 75.9% and 57.2% for women in 2018. When it comes to the employment status of parents with children in 2014, single-income households were the most common in Korea, comprising 46.5%, followed by dual-income households at 20.6%. In comparison, in other OECD member countries, an average of 41.9% of households were dual-income and 30.8% were single-income. According to 2019 data from OECD, Korean women spent 4.4 times as much time as men did on housework. Korea ranked 86 among 102 countries on sharing household duties. Korean women spent 34 minutes more in paid and unpaid work combined. In 2018, only 42.4% of Korean women took childcare leave at small and medium-sized businesses, but 85.6% took it at major companies. 69.5% of women who worked at small and medium-sized businesses continued to work after childcare leave, and 87.4% returned to their jobs at major companies.
Can you see what is really taking place in Korean society? Overall, men are becoming exhausted at work without adequate rest periods, while women are stuck as homemakers and have their careers disrupted. Some working mothers are struggling to juggle their work and domestic duties, but their male counterparts are almost free from housework. To strike a balance between work and life for both genders, employment policies should allow for equal opportunities and household duties should be shared evenly. Besides, this is not just about work-and-life balance. Countries with more paid leave and lower levels of gender inequality show higher labor productivity. Korea ranked 29 among 36 OECD member countries in 2017.
Sadly, these problems are even more complicated and entangled than I mentioned, so I don't anticipate that things will change anytime soon.
https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm#indicator-chart
https://www.oecd.org/gender/data/balancingpaidworkunpaidworkandleisure.htm
http://www.donga.com/news/article/all/20190922/97522222/1
https://news.joins.com/article/21722217
https://www.index.go.kr/potal/stts/idxMain/selectPoSttsIdxSearch.do?idx_cd=4212&stts_cd=421201
https://www.womennews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=193446
**This writing is part of my learning process. When I choose a topic to write about, I google and read related articles to learn natural English expressions. I try to make an impromptu speech based on what I learned. Then write down the script. I review my writing and check grammar as far as I can. I have it revised by someone whose first language is English. Lastly, I read aloud the writing many times until I can memorize it.
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