Korea Women's Life Course and Meanings of Family and Economic Activities(International Session(1))

Abstract

This study aims to discover the patterns of Korean women's experience of family and economic activities and to articulate the way in which women themselves interpret their life. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are employed to understand the Korean women's life experiences. The analysis of the sequences of Korean women's family and economic activities over their life course reveals five distinctive patterns of for ever married Korean women; working women with no job interruption (13.7%), women who reentered the labor market after maternal leave (M type, 18.6%), women who resigned and have not yet reentered labor market (latent M type, 26.9%), women with first job entry only after child rearing (23.5%), and finally, women with no work experience over their life time (17.3%). The relative composition of the respective life course shows a significant change over marriage cohorts. M type including latent M type became a dominant life pattern among marital cohorts of the 1980s and later. It is also noted that the share of women with no job interruptions has increased among the marital cohorts of 1990 and later. This study also examines how Korean women interpret their experience of family and economic activities, based on in-depth interviews with Korean women during the period of 2002 and 2003. These women's narratives illuminate the fact that family centeredness constitutes the central part of their identity. What deserves emphasis is that family centeredness of Korean young married women is the orientation actively obtained in the pursuit of their and their family social achievement. A critical concern is raised regarding the contradictory consequence of family centrality on women's autonomy and gender equality.