• Perspectives in Nursing Science
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.151-157
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify difficulties that working mothers face and solutions to the identified problems. Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional, descriptive survey. A survey with 8 items rated on a 5-point scale (1~5) and 5 open-ended questions was administered to 48 married nurses and nurse aides working in 5 nursing units of a teaching hospital in South Korea in April 2013. Results: The score of satisfaction with childrearing patterns (mean=$3.31{\pm}0.79$) was higher than that of satisfaction with spousal support (mean=$3.08{\pm}0.85$). The score of working mother's turnover intention (mean=$2.40{\pm}1.03$) was lowest among the 8 items, but partners did not want their wives to quit work (mean=$3.60{\pm}1.22$). Satisfaction with company employment benefits for childrearing (mean=$2.90{\pm}0.72$) had the lowest score among the 4 satisfaction types analyzed. The turnover intention and satisfactions with childrearing (r=-.51, p<.001), spousal support (r=-.43, p=.002), supervisor's support (r=-.36, p=.013), and company benefits (r=-.37, p=.009) showed significant negative correlations. Conclusion: According to these results, familial support for childrearing is highly correlated with employed mothers' turnover intention. So improvement of familial support for childrearing will reduce married nurses' turnover intention. In addition, well-organized nursery facilities are recommended for enabling working mothers to continue their careers. Furthermore, more family-friendly welfare policies such as a flextime systems or compulsory paternity leave should be reinforced in the workplace.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.133-156
• /
• 2006

This paper tries to explore the overall profile of Korean female labor force over the period of 1960-2000. A particular emphasis is put on portraying major over-time characteristics of female labor force, following five different political regimes--that of Park, J.H.(1960 and 1970s), of Chon D.H. (early and late 1980s), of Roh T.W. (late 1980-early 1990s), of Kim,Y.S. (early 1990-1ate 1990s), and of Kim. D. J. (late 1990-early 2000s), respectively. Discussions have centered around: 1) utilization of young single girls from rural areas during the early industrialization process of 1960-1985; 2) the beginning of married women's entry into labor market and issues of the socalled &M-curve& thesis in Korean experiences since 1990s; 3) the emergence and enlargement of non-regular workers; and 4) the launching of labor related legal measures such as the Equal Employment Act of 1988 and its successive revisions, the Maternity Leave Acts, the On-the-Job Chi1dcare Centers, and the prohibition of sexual harassments on the job setting, and so on. All in all, although it is undeniable that the Korean female labor force has experienced much progress over the period of time in terms of &equality and protection& issues, overall industrial reality we are facing with has not been so prosperous in the sense that most women workers have become the victims of industrial polarization, as time goes by.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.297-323
• /
• 2011

Part-time jobs in Sweden are highly feminized yet are in fair conditions in terms of job security, earnings, and collective representation. Three points are considered to be important to understand why part-time work in Sweden carries such positive characteristics. First, the part-time work in Sweden is widely spread not as a result of employers' need for labor flexibilization but as means to enhance the work-life balance, a value pursued within a broader social policy package to change the breadwinner model. Second, discrimination against part-time workers is restrained in Sweden because the boundary between part-time and full-time is not conspicuous. Most of part-time jobs are occupied by regular workers who exert the right to part-time work, hence may go back to the full-time status any time. Third, the regulation on overtime work of part-time workers as well as full-time workers is strong. It is largely agreed among researchers that part-time work contributed greatly to an increase of female employment rate in Sweden. Since the 1970s, the increased availability of part-time jobs induced married women who used to be economically inactive to the labor market and maintained them to be economically active throughout the child rearing period. From the gender perspective, one may still raise issues regarding part-time work in Sweden such as persistent feminization and strong occupational sex segregation. However, the observed trend shows that the part-time work in Sweden has functioned more as a stepping stone to the full-time work for women than as a women's trap.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.18 no.12
• /
• pp.149-157
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study is to listen to vivid story on economic life of marriage immigrant women using phenomenological study out of qualitative study methods, and to analyze the meaning of dynamicity of experiences through in-depth interviews. The research question is "What is the meaning of economic life that marriage immigrant women experience?" From the research, 67 meaningful statements were abstracted and 15 core meanings were organized. The 15 core meanings were categorized as 5 theme categories such as 'Tough Life', 'Unstable Income such as Children Education Expense and Insurance Premium', 'Search for Changes in Life Style for Adaptation', 'Pursuit of Economic Stability through Employment', 'Expectation of Supports and Return to Married Woman's Parents' Home.' The researcher made structural description through first person speaker for the application of hermeneutical writing. In other words, the meaning of economic life of marriage immigrant women in Korea is 'difficult coping process to family-oriented culture pursuing changes in life style to adapt themselves to difficult reality.' Various undertones of practice were proposed through those statements such as policy to expand opportunities to receive an old-age pension by applying 'Joint Scheme for Couples' (Virtual Name) to People's pension for stable economic life of marriage immigrant women in old age.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.5-36
• /
• 1998

This study examines the change of female labor market structure during the last several decades, focusing the effects of demographic factors such as declining fertility and increasing educational attainment of women. Women of the recent cohort tend to postpone their first marriages, to attain higher levels of education, and to have smaller number of children than women of the old cohort. This demographic trend results in the change of the population compositions in a way that population subgroups with high labor force participation have been increased. In addition, women of each population subgroup supply their labor in the market with higher rate than their old cohort counterparts. The labor force participation rate of highly educated women, and of married women has been increased faster than that of women with low education and of unmarried women. Although childbirth is still one of the most critical barrier for the women's participation, more and more women with young children tend to work for pay than ever before. In spite of the demographic change which is supportive to the increasing labor force participation, the Korean labor market have lost its female participants for the last year of the economic restructuring, reflecting demand-side factors as well as demographic factors are essential to determine the labor force participation of women.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.1-25
• /
• 2011

There are two main purposes in this study. First, we compare the effects of wives' characteristics with the effects of the husbands' characteristics on the induced abortion. Second, we analyze whether the determinants of the induced abortion have changed according to parity and conception period. The main findings are follows. First, both wives' and husbands' socioeconomic characters have insignificant effects on the induced abortion at parity 0, in the 1997 and 2000 Korean Fertility Survey data. Second, during the periods of the lowest-low fertility, after 2000 in Korea, wives' employments have positive effects at parity 0 and 1, while husbands' educational levels have negative effects at parity 1 on the induced abortion. The implications are as follows. First, having children had been the universal social phenomenon before 2000 in Korea. however, after 2000, reproductions have become the women's choice, lather than the duty of married women. Women must weight the balance between the benefits and the costs of children so that women's fertility behaviors become a rational choice. Women's employment is the most important factor in these rational calculations. Second, both Western individualism and the traditional Korean familism have significant effects on the fertility behavior and the induced abortions in Korea. This rejects the diffusion theory, which tells that the traditional familism must be replaced by the Western individualism in order to decline the fertility rates in developing countries.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.109-137
• /
• 2007

One of the key features of the Korean labor market is that, even though the central axis of employment has shifted from manufacturing sector to service sector, the ratio of part-time work is very low. Its major reasons are low wage rate, insufficient fringe benefits including social insurance, and deficient job security, even though part-time work has positive characteristics. This study examines whether part-time work would be a decent one and an alternative to full-time work by answering two questions: one is who chooses part-time work and another is whether part-time work is satisfactory. Analyses of 3,971 wage workers in the 8th wave of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey reveal that, as expected, part-time work is prevalent among the young, married women, and the old supporting the results from previous studies and that choosing part-time work on one's initiatives has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction for women while it is not for men. Form the result, it can be concluded that part-time work can be an appropriate alternative for full-time work if one chooses it voluntarily.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.239-251
• /
• 2009

This study aims to examine how much Korean's family value orientations and gender role attitudes are different from those of U.S.A., Sweden, and Japan, and how demographic variables influence family value orientations and gender role attitudes across the countries. By using 2004 Korea General Social Survey data and 2002 International Social Survey Program family module, multiple regression analyses showed that Korean's family value orientations and gender role attitudes were much more traditional than those of U.S.A., Sweden, and Japan, even after controlling demographic variables. Furthermore, each country showed a distinct pattern in the impact of demographic variables on family value orientations and gender role attitudes. Among the demographic variables, age and marital status were statistically significant indicators of family value orientations for all the countries. However, gender, the year of education, and employment status effected on family value orientations only in some countries. The findings of this study showed that Korea was still traditional in terms of family value orientations and gender role attitudes, compared with U.S.A, Sweden, and Japan. Although family value orientations were more traditional in Korea than in the other countries, all the countries showed similar patterns of explaining mechanism in the effect of demographic variables on family value orientations. People who were men and married were likely to be more traditional than those who were women and unmarried. However, gender role attitudes showed interesting results. All the demographic variables were significant predictors of gender role attitudes for Korea, whereas only some of demographic variables were statistically significant indicators of gender role attitudes for other countries. That is, Korean society showed strong attitudinal differences on the basis of demographic variables. The implication of these differences was discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.323-331
• /
• 2011

Objective: This study aimed to examine the level of risk perception related to pesticide contamination of food products and associated sociodemographic factors, as well as investigate the association with environmental pollution preventive behaviors. Methods: Based on data from Social Survey conducted in 2008 among a nationally representative sample of the population 15 years or older, we estimated proportions and 95% confidence intervals of the risk perception of pesticide contamination of food products. Logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the effects of sociodemographic status on risk perception. Results: Among respondents, those who feel anxious about the risks of pesticide contamination of domestic food products accounted for 40.4%, whereas the proportion rose to 87.0% with imported food products. These numbers showed that levels of anxiety about the pesticide contamination of imported food products were ranked at the top, and those for domestic products were at the bottom of the list of all environmental pollutants examined in the survey. Significantly related factors to anxiety about pesticide contamination of food products included women, the 40-50 age group, university graduates, married, non-manual employment, having school-aged children, and owning one's own home. The population attempting to prevent environmental pollution showed higher levels of anxiety about pesticide contamination of food products than did those who were not taking such steps. Conclusion: Compared to other forms of environmental pollution, Koreans show the highest levels of anxiety about pesticide contamination of imported food products. Therefore, it is necessary to establish appropriate regulations and transparent risk communication with the public about the safety of imported food.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.179-200
• /
• 2002

The purposes of this study are as follows: (1) how are marital relationships classified by wives' perception of marital conflict and intimacy? (2) how do these types differ in terms of demographic variables (age, income, educational level, and employment status), individual psychological variables (self-esteem, differentiation) and interaction-related variables (affective self-disclosure, conflict resolution styles)?, and what are the relative discriminant powers of these variables in explaining marriage types? The data for this study were collected from 944 married women in Dajeon, who had one or more children, using the structured questionnaire. Classification using median and discriminant analysis were used with SPSS-PC for windows program. The major findings are as follows: The characteristics of each type are as follows: (1) The 'devitalized couples' consist of 18.2% of the whole sample. The levels of positive self-concept and positive interaction are the lowest. (2) The 'intimate couples' consist of 32.6% of the sample. They tend to be found most frequently in the population which is high in the educational level and income level and low in age. While the levels of positive self-concept and positive interaction are the highest, the levels of negative conflict resolution styles are the lowest. (3) The 'intimacy-persuaded couples' take 17.3% of the sample. The levels of positive self-concept and interaction are similar to the 'intimate couples'. (4) The 'conflict-habituated couples' take 31.9% of the sample. Whereas the levels of negative conflict resolution styles are the highest, the levels of positive self-concept and positive interaction are the lowest. The results of this study suggest several implications for the family-life education. It needs to apply different approaches to improve marital quality for each type of marriage.