• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.253-277
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to identify work-family balance values(work-family centrality, marriage value, child-care value, work value etc) in Korea, Japan and U. K.. Moreover, This article investigated the attitudinal generational gap in each countries. Participants were 311 Korean, 324 Japanese and 322 English married working women, who were in the thirties fifties. The major findings of this study were as follows. Compared to Japan and U. K., Korean married working women were more work-centered and likely to seek for extrinsic work value as well as intrinsic work value. While they were highly thought that a woman should work despite of her marriage, it was also strongly concerned if their work negatively affected family life, they should be better to quit their job. These results showed that conservative-liberal values were coexisted in Korean participants. Secondly, U. K. participants were more centered on the family-oriented value and thought that women were not necessary to work in work-family conflict, in comparison to Korean and Japanese. As a result of cluster analysis, they were a lot distributed in 'woman's family care oriented group' which was weigh on woman's role as a family care giver as well as 'family value oriented group'. Thirdly, Japan participants not only were less family-centered but also less work-centered. In the similar vein, they were less motivated and oriented to all of intrinsic and extrinsic work values compared with participants in Koran and U. K. On the other hand, Japanese participants, in sharp contrast to Korean, had a liberal viewpoint in work-family related values, such as woman's work, career break caused by work-family conflict, and family values. We were trying to interpret these results in consideration of socio-economic-politic as well as psychological aspects.