• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.139-161
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• 2002

In 1987, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted, which indicated the institutional regulation against gender-discriminatory labor practices. Until the late 1980s, women were forced to quit upon marriage. It had influenced negatively on women status in the labor market. In this paper, 1 try to examine how the institutional change affects young educated women's work behaviors. The change of the education and family effect on work will be examined. For analysis, data from 2002 Women's Work Survey is employed. The results show the followings. Among women of young generation, negative effect of education has disappeared and turned out to be positive among the never married. But, marriage and the family responsibility still influence negatively on young women's participation into the labor market. In making a decision to work, husband's attitude is more important than wife's own. But, among the single, women's own attitude toward work plays an important role. In overall, women of young generation is also influenced by the family responsibility as much as the previous generation. The negative effect of marriage and the family responsibility on women's working is stronger among the college educated women.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.107-137
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• 1996

Under-utilization of Korean women's education in the labor market has been observed and pointed out as a waste of valuable human resources. Although education provides women with positive returns when they work, it has been found that Korean women's education is not much related to the likelihood of women's labor force participation. This tendency cannot be explained by micro-economic theory, which says that educated women are more likely to participate in the labor force. Thus, in this analysis, a macro-level explanation is attempted to understand Korean women's economic behaviors in relation to education. Korea's rapid industrialization since 1960 has provided ample job opportunities mostly for less educated women. On the other hand, increasing demand for educated female labor has been moderate. Various restriction against women, especially married women, have prevailed in the Korean labor market. Restrictions against women and the marriage bar tend to be selectively applied to decent white-collar jobs, mostly affecting educated women. Furthermore, there has been no shortage of educated male labor due to its adequate supply. Since Korean women spend most of their adult lives in marriage, married women's low participation in the labor force is a critical factor for the low economic returns to women's education throughout their lifetime. Restriction against married women in the labor market also existed in the past of the United States and the Great Britain. However, along with the expansion of the service sector, married women in great numbers flowed into non-manual jobs. The post-1940 increase of married women in the labor force in those countries can be understood to be a result of a labor shortage for non-manual jobs. Also in Taiwan, which shares many common cultural and economic backgrounds with Korea, the marriage bar has been in decline since the late 1970s, along with an increasing demand for female labor in the service sector. In sum, the changes in the demand structure and the supply of educated male labor force will contribute to the lift of the marrige bar in Korea.