The productivity of housework as a buffer in the case of economic crisis -Based on newspapers during the IMF regime-

경제위기 하에서 가사노동에 대한 공적 요구를 통해 본 가사노동의 생산성 -국제통화기금 체제하의 신문기사 분석을 중심으로-

The purpose of this study is to confirm the productivity of housework empirically by analyzing the newspaper articles during the financial aid from the IMF. During this period, Korean Households expenses. And Korea government also wanted to share the burden of overcoming the currency crisis with households. Theoretically, Home economists has approved the productivity of housework as it increases the worth of wage by reducing cost of labor reproduction. So this article try to verify the productivity of housework by analyzing if there was public demand of housework as a means of reducing expenses during the IMF regime, based on newspaper articles. The major findings that are derived from the study are as follows : First, during the IMF regime, Households and housewives were described as an agent of overcoming economic crisis in newspaper articles. Second, households were required to substitute money expenses for housework to cut expenses. These results show that housework has worth as a productive labor and contribute to society and households as it increases the worth of wage and deceases the cost of living.