Choosing to Work: The Impact of Gender Role Attitudes on Female Labor Force Participation in South Korea
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2016
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Haverford College. Department of Economics
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Award
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eng
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Dark Archive until 2021-01-01, afterwards Haverford users only.
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Abstract
While female labor force participation in South Korea has increased with industrialization, it has not kept pace with the rates of other OECD countries. A potential factor that may explain the labor force participation decision amongst females in South Korea is a female’s attitudes towards gender roles. Using 2012 data from the Korean General Social Survey (KGSS), I find that more modern attitudes increase the likelihood of participating in the labor force, particularly for married women. Over the full sample, a more modern attitude increases the likelihood of participating in the labor force more than pursuing an undergraduate college education beyond high school, but these impacts differ for married and unmarried women when they are considered separately. The results suggest that policies to change public attitudes surrounding women and work, implemented alongside preexisting policies such as childcare support, could further increase female labor force participation. Raising the female labor force participation rate (FLPR) could help mitigate the consequences of the demographic crisis that South Korea is currently facing and set it on a path towards more sustainable economic growth.