Archive


Name	ASK

Subject	Gender Dimensions of Family Policy in Korea 20050127

Prepared for Canada-Korea Social Policy Symposium II
January 27-28, 2005

Gender Dimensions of Family Policy in Korea

Yeong-Ran Park (Department of Social Welfare, Kangnam University)

I. Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to explore the gender dimensions of family policy in Korea, and to draw some implications for constructing more effective responses to family issues that are posing grave concern to contemporary Koreans. Korean society will enter a new phase in the development of family policy as “the Ministry of Gender Equality” will be changed to “the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family” in the year 2005. This was the decision made by the Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization in order to strengthen and coordinate family related policies and to respond to the low fertility problem that has emerged as a top priority national agenda.
Many people hope that this will be an opportunity to reshape and develop new family policies that will help prevent and solve “family crisis” and restore family stability. Yet, for some, this shift is perceived as rather disturbing and disappointing event since the Ministry, which has stood for gender equality and has worked for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, seems to be clouding its fundamental identity and mission.
Over the last few decades, significant changes have occurred in the structure, function, relationships and roles in Korean families. Decrease of fertility rate, aging of population, escalation of divorce and women's labor force participation have all occurred at an unprecedented rate, and they have been the major forces of structural changes in Korean families. In order to respond to these phenomena defined as either “crisis” or “changes,” the Korean government, for the first time, put an effort to design a comprehensive measure, and to directly intervene in family life by enacting the “Basic Act on Healthy Family” in 2004. However, the controversy remains about the purpose of this law, and especially the groups which oppose the idea of the existence of typical healthy family or normal family, have already proposed a revised version of this law. Currently, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare implement the Basic Act on Healthy Family, but it will soon be transferred to the Ministry of Gender Equality as an implementing agency.
Feminist scholars have identified the relationship between women’s subservient position in the household and their secondary status in the labor force, and they also analyzed how social policies have repeatedly been planned and implemented to uphold and reinforce the values and principles of the traditional nuclear family (Lord, 1993). Analysis of the feminization of poverty also reveals that public policies have not kept pace with private issues, and that they have limitations in reflecting the changing role of women in society (Lord, 1993). This argument seems to hold true in Korean context as well. However, this paper does not deal with the theoretical arguments of feminist scholarship on social welfare policies. It will instead introduce the “Korean gender management system” as a context and a framework in which the gender dimensions of family policy in Korea are discussed. Then major family issues and family support programs will be outlined in order to conceptualize and to suggest directions for constructing gender responsive family policies in Korea.

II. Korean Gender Management System and the Challenges for Transforming the Gender Roles and Relations

It has been almost ten years since the Beijing Platform of Action was adopted and empowerment and gender mainstreaming became the common jargon for gender policy. Since the Beijing Conference, gender mainstreaming has been the key concept in formulating and implementing gender policy in Korea as well. Empowerment and gender mainstreaming strategies have provided a unifying guideline for integrating gender perspectives in government policies and NGO activities. However, despite consistent efforts to translate and disseminate the concepts and tools to bring about more effective changes in combating pervasive sex discrimination in Korean society, we still experience difficulties in communicating what the terms truly mean and how best we can apply them in daily practices in all policy and development sectors.
The Ministry of Gender Equality was established in 2001. However, the actual start of a national agency in charge of gender equality policies in Korea can be traced back to the Second Ministry of Political Affairs established on February 25, 1988. With the launch of the Kim Dae Jung administration, known as the People’s Government, a Presidential Commission for Women’s Affairs was established on February 28, 1998 directly beneath the president and oversaw the comprehensive planning and coordination of gender equality policies The Ministry of Gender Equality was established in its place in order to manage gender equality activities which were originally dispersed throughout the government within a single agency and execute related policies.

The Ministry of Gender Equality is responsible for the following main duties.
- The coordination and planning of gender equality policies
- The analysis and assessment of the policy outcome on gender
- The development and utilization of the female workforce
- The expansion of women’s social participation
- Child-care activities
- The prevention of prostitution and protection of victims
- The prevention of domestic and sexual violence and protection of victims
- The interdiction of gender discrimination and provision of assistance to victims
- Cooperation with women’s groups and international organizations

On June 12, 2004, the control over childcare duties was transferred from the Ministry of Health and Welfare to the Ministry of Gender Equality. The Ministry expressed a view on this transition as follows. “The ministry had thus grown into a national body not only involved in the enhancement of women’s rights and status through the planning and coordination of gender equality policies and the prevention of gender discrimination, but also committing itself to the vital role of increasing national competitiveness and realizing gender equality by developing the female workforce into an engine for future growth.”
In the year 2002, the KWDI launched a feasibility study for building Korean Gender Management System with the support from the UNDP Seoul. The main purpose of the project was to assess the current state of gender mainstreaming in order to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as possible entry points for building a more systematic and effective model of gender mainstreaming. In this project, the elements of gender management system. which were originally identified by the Commonwealth Secretariat, were applied to the situation in Korea, and measures for building the capacity of the Ministry of Gender Equality (MOGE), an organization which will mostly likely become the lead agency in KGMS, were stressed in order to strengthen its function for coordinating, monitoring and advocating gender policies.

Major Elements of the Korean Gender Management System (KGMS)Framework Elements of KGMS
Enabling Environment - Political will
- Human/material resources
- Legal/administrative framework
- Mainstreaming of women in decision making
- Active involvement of women’s NGOs
KGMS Processes - Establishing KGMS structures and mechanisms
- Effective implementation of 2nd Basic Plan on Women’s Policies
- Incorporating gender in other national plans
KGMS Structures - Lead agency: MOGE
- GM Teams/ Gender Focal Points
- Parliamentary Standing Committee
- Gender policy coordinating body
KGMS Tools/Mechanisms - Gender statistics and indicators
- Gender budget and analysis
- Gender training

Gender mainstreaming still remains a challenge for the Ministry of Gender Equality, which has adopted it as a national strategy to achieving gender equality. The overall institutional capacity for coordinating gender policies and mainstreaming equality concerns in government is still very weak, gender policies are sometimes ineffectively coordinated and poorly managed. Resistance has been arising against policy initiatives for mainstreaming women in decision-making positions in public sector due to the lack of understanding on the structural aspects of gender inequality and the patriarchal culture deeply embedded in Korean society.
The Basic Act on Women’s Development was revised in 2002 to emphasize gender training and gender analysis. Accordingly, gender analysis has become a mandatory procedure for all government ministries and local governments beginning in 2005. Even though tasks remain for the Ministry to provide resources and technical assistance for implementing gender analysis, this is a remarkable progress.
The Ministry of Gender Equality is about to take on new responsibilities for family policy by adding the implementation of Mother-Father-Children Act and Basic Act on Healthy Family to their job description. This shift has been created as a response to the perception of “family crisis” and inclusion of family issues in the national agenda. The challenge remains for the Ministry to define and develop gender-sensitive family policy.

• Gender Ministry to Take Charge of Family Policy (Korea Times, December 17, 2004)
The Ministry of Gender Equality will be reborn as the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family next year. The Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization on Friday announced the plan to transfer the functions of family affairs to the Ministry of Gender Equality from the Ministry of Health and Welfare under the new title of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
The newly reorganized ministry will likely take over duties related to family protection policies such as divorce, marriage and birth. In addition, the authority will transfer the responsibility of investigating and managing gender discrimination cases to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to streamline its new functions and policies for women.
``We decided to change the ministry and take responsibility for family policies to enhance the specialization of these sectors because family policy is still in its initial stage on the national level. Integration will be discussed for mid- and long-term tasks,’’ the presidential committee

• Gender Equality Minster to Increase Childcare Support (Korea Times, January 9, 2005 )
Gender Equality Minister Jang Ha-jin said Wednesday that she will expand childcare support and create more jobs for women. Childcare policy is regarded as a top priority when it comes to social welfare systems in other countries, she said one day after she was appointed to head the ministry.
“But Korea is just in a starting stage for its social welfare system, and child care policy, among others, has a long way to go,'' she added.
Touching on the details of family policies, Jang said family affairs will include important comprehensive measures.
“At the moment there is a crisis of the family as a whole, namely the crisis for reproduction. The on-going trend of a declining birthrate and soaring divorce rate will jeopardize family and society,'' she said.
Jang said the reason why so many young students have a negative opinion of marriage is because Korean society lacks a social safety net that guarantees family welfare over a lifetime.
“I realized just how serious the problems in our social safety net are. Many youngsters are worried about their obligation to support both their parents and their children in married life, and the government has failed to implement policies to support them,” she said.
Jang believes the ministry should be more responsible for issues related to family affairs and develop policies to help revive family values

II. “Family Crisis/Changes” and the Emergence of Family Issues as a National Agenda

1. Major Indicators of “Family Crisis/Changes” in Korea

According to UN (1996), families as psychological as well as socio-economic units represent a wide variety of styles, structures, and functions, and they have been different across societies and throughout history. While families are of pivotal importance to interpersonal life and to the greater societies, they are also undergoing rapid transformations in almost all countries including Korea. Until recently, the institution of family was regarded as a separate sphere – informal and private- from the public life, and family problems were regarded as personal issues remaining to be tackled by individuals and family members themselves. However, recent changes in demographic structure and family life have been perceived as a serious threat that could undermine the economic growth and national competitiveness as well. Thus “family” became one of the keywords in public discourse and a centerpiece in social policy development.
Then what are the causes of “family crisis/changes” in Korea? There are both structural and functional aspects to the transformation of family life, and especially the low fertility rate and aging of population, increasing divorce and changing gender roles seem to constitute some of the major variables that are causing the “family crisis/changes” in Korea.
Recent announcement made by the National Statistical Office about the new population projection resulted in a flood of newspaper editorials with headlines such as “Low birthrate causes alarm,” “Low birthrate may hurt growth potential,” and “South Korea will become the most aged society in the world in 2050, with a prolonged average life span coinciding with an extremely low birth rate.”

• Population decrease is the beginning of a downfall of the nation. (Chosun Daily Newspaper, January 21,2005)”
In the 2020, Korean population will begin to decrease after reaching 49million and 950 thousand persons, The shock of population decrease and aging will drive Korean economy to low growth. Therefore, emergency measures are needed to combat the structural changes in population.

• Population aging: silent but an enormous disaster (Choogang Daily Newspaper, January 21, 2005)
Aging of population is a serious phenomenon that impedes the national dynamics, and threaten the prosperity of the nation. It will threaten the finance and national security, but Korean society is not paying enough attention. We need fundamental measure to boost the fertility, income ceiling programs and the transformation of industry to accommodate aging manpower. We need comprehensive measures at the national level.

1) Low Fertility

According to the National Statistical Office, the fertility rate of Korean women (between age 15-49) has decreased from 4.53 in 1970 to 2.83 in 1980, 1.59 in 1990, 1.47 in 2000, 1.17 in 2002 and 1.19 in 2003.

Fertility Rate by Mother’s Age and Number of Newborns
(Units: person, 1000 women, 1000 persons)
1970 1980 1990 2000 2003 2010 2020 2030 2050
Fertility Rate 4.53 2.83 1.59 1.47 1.19 1.21 1.24 1.28 1.30
20～24 193.1 135.9 83.2 39.0 23.7 23.7 23.3 23.0 22.8
25～29 320.6 242.7 169.4 150.6 112.3 111.4 111.9 112.5 112.8
30～34 205.7 114.0 50.5 84.2 79.9 83.6 88.1 93.4 96.2
35～39 105.9 40.2 9.6 17.4 17.3 18.2 19.7 21.5 22.4
Total number of Newborns 1,007 865 659 637 493 458 380 339 229
Source: National Statistical Office (2005)

Low fertility rate caused by the increase of unmarried young generation, and less number of children in married households. In 2003년, the average age of men at marriage was 30.1, and 27.3 for women. According to a recent survey conducted by the Korean Women’s Development (2004) , the respondents (all women) perceived ‘economic reasons (21%),’ ‘financial burden of raising children(19.7%),’ ‘young peoples’ preference about career development(15.9%),’ ‘high cost of educating children(15.8%),’ ‘lack of social support for dual-income families(9.7%),’ and ‘preference about high quality care for children(7.2%) as major reasons for low fertility.

2) Aging of Population

With the advancement of medical technology and health promotion strategies, the average life expectancy has increased. In 1998, persons aged sixty-five and older made up 6.6% of the total population, and this proportion is expected to reach 15.7% in 2020. The life expectancy of Koreans was 75.9 in 2000 and 77.0 in 2002, which was a marked increase from 63.2 in 1970. It is expected to increase to 81.9 in 2030 and 83.3 in 2050. Among the older population in Korea, 62.8% were female in 1998, and their average life expectancy was 77.4, which is 8 years longer than that of older men in Korea.

Average Life Expectancy by Sex
(Unit: years)
1971 1981 1991 2000 2002 2005 2010 2030 2050
Total Average 62.3 66.2 71.7 75.9 77.0 77.9 79.1 81.9 83.3
Men 59.0 62.3 67.7 72.1 73.4 74.8 76.2 79.2 80.7
Women 66.1 70.5 75.9 79.5 80.4 81.5 82.6 85.2 86.6
Source: National Statistical Office (2005)

• South Korea will become the most aged society in the world in 2050, with a prolonged average life span coinciding with an extremely low birth rate. (Korea Times, January 19, 2005)
In its latest population report based on United Nations (U.N.) data, the National Statistical Office (NSO) forecast the nation’s aged population, meaning those aged over 65, will account for as much as 37.3 percent of the total in 2050. The estimated figure is the highest in the world, even ahead of Japan. After standing at 2.9 percent in 1960, the ratio of Korea’s aged population steadily rose to 3.8 percent in 1980, 7.2 percent in 2000 and 8.3 percent in 2003. The ratio is forecast to 10.9 percent in 2010, 15.7 percent in 2020 and 24.1 percent in 2030.
Experts suggested the government draw up long-term solutions to address the problems by reforming the pension system and introducing policies that encourage childbirth, such as tax incentives.

This is an ironic situation since Korea has been hailed as one of the most successful countries of family planning in the past few decades. Family planning campaigns that advertised the benefits of having fewer children(“Two is enough,” “One is OK”) resulted in “a society, which refuses to have babies.” And now the mass media is bombarded with the messages of “low birth rate, no future for the nation.” Officially, the population control policy came to an end in 1996, but it took many years to discuss and design policies, which could help, recover the population replacement rate.

3) Increasing Divorce
According to the National Statistical Office, the total number of divorce in 2002 reached 145.3 thousand cases (couples). On average 398 couples were divorced per day. The crude divorce rate (number of divorce per 1,000 population) continued its growing trend with 1.2 cases in 1992, with 2.8 cases in 2001 and with 3.0 cases in 2002. The crude divorce rate rose by 2.5 times over that of 1992, 10 years ago. The number of divorced people continued to rise in recent years mainly due to the changed patterns of living as preferring individualistic life, the differences in characters of married couple and the conflicts between family members, etc.(NSO, 2003).
The proportion of remarriage over that of total marriages also continued to rise, and the number of remarried women increased by more then 2 times over that of 1992.

Divorce Rate: 1992-2002
1990 1992 1995 1999 2000 2001 2002
Number of divorce/thousand 45.7 53.5 68.3 118.0 120.0 135.0 145.3
Crude divorce rate/thousand 1.1 1.2 1.5 2.5 2.5 2.8 3.0

Female-headed households are mostly composed of one person living alone or single parent families. In 1990, one-person household was 35.1% but it increased to 48.2% in 2000. Moreover, single parent families, which were counted as 26.9% in 1990, increased to 20.3% in 2000. There has been a visible increase of female-headed households in Korea mainly due to increase of one-person households and women living alone due to loss of partners to death or divorce. Majority of single women raising children alone face high risk of poverty and heavy burden of family care.

Percentage of Single Parents
(Units: number of persons, %)
Total Marital Status of Household-Heads % of Single parent families
Married Death of spouse Divorce unmarried
2000 Total 1,123,854 252,917 502,284 245,987 122,666 7.9
Single father families 219,997 58,227 64,058 92,810 4,902 1.5
Single mother families 903,857 194,690 438,226 153,177 117,764 6.3
1995 Total 959,972 526,320 123,969 93,616 216,067 7.4
Single father families 172,398 50,666 68,022 51,080 2,630 1.3
Single mother families 787,574 165,401 458,298 72,889 90,986 6.1
Source : National Statistical Office, Report on Population Census (1996, 2001)

4) Changing Women’s Roles

Another significant factor causing family change and affecting the need for increased social care is the changing gender roles and relationship of family member. More women are entering the labor market and the women's economic activity rate has reached 48.9% in 2003. This is expected to increase since the Korean government view utilization of women’s resources as one of the strategies boost economic growth.
On the other hand, according to the Time Use Survey by the National Statistical Office in 1999, it was found that the average time an individual spends for household labor on a weekday is 200 minutes for women and 25 minutes for men. The reproductive roles of women affect their economic activities, and Korean women answered that ‘child-rearing and education’ and ‘burden of balancing work and family life’ as the biggest barriers in their lives (Han and other, 2001).
Women’s increasing participation in the labor market will continue to require social services which could substitute for caring roles which women used to play in families. Therefore, the contemporary Korean families, especially dual-earner families are in need of services for care of children and other dependent family members.

2. Family Issues Emerging as a National Agenda

The crisis scenario written with the healine of “low fertility, aging and slow down of economic growth ” brought family issues to the public arena. Family policy experts in survey answered that the most serious problem Korean families were facing was aging of population and caregiving(4.72 in 5-point-scale)(2002). Increase of divorce and single parent families(4.44), childcare of dual-earner families(4.36), problems of poor families(4.24), remarriage and blended families(4.16), intergenerational family conflict(3.77), and low fertility(3.76) were rated as next serious issues.
In a hearing conducted by the Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization about the future direction of family, children and youth policies in September 2004, family problems were identified as follows:

- Down-sizing of families
- Aging, nuclearization, low fertility, changes of family values
- Coexistence of different family values which cause conflict among family members (hierarchical values vs. democratic values)
- Crisis of middle-aged men and increase of domestic violence
- Increase of runaway and violent youth , family suicide, child abuse(social problems caused by family dissolution and instability)
- Weakening of family care caused by women’s increasing employment
- Changes in attitude towards marriage and children

In addition, problems identified about the existing family policies were the lack of macro and comprehensive approach to respond to rapidly changing family environment. For example, maternity(birth) allowance would not be effective means to tackle the issues of changes in women’s attitudes, roles and status. The problems of existing family policies were listed as follows:

- Policies targeted only low income families receiving public assistance
- Existing policies could not respond to the problems of emerging “new families” (new forms of families such as single person households, families without children, single parent families, remarried families, cohabitants, unmarried single mothers, communions, refugee families from North Korea, interracial families, long-distance families)
- Basic Act on Health Family does not fully reflect the realities of Korean families, (Definition of Family: Family is a basic unit of society created by marriage or blood-ties or legal adoption.)
- S
- Scattered and complicated legal measures and service delivery systems exist to enhance the right and welfare of individual members of the family(not family as a unit of intervention)
- Family related policies are marginalized in the existing organizations

Therefore, the need for stronger and more comprehensive approach to solving these issues emerged as a policyl agenda. The Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization spearheaded the reform and came up with the proposal of designating the Ministry of Gender Equality as the coordinating and implementing agency for family policies. However, the conceptual framework for more advanced family policy is yet to be formulated and experimented.
Korean society is a dynamic configuration of individuals and families where the values and lifestyles of traditional family and postmodern family coexist, and individuals struggle to cope with everyday challenges of adjusting to the appropriate roles and behaviors for themselves. Rapid social changes have brought about confusion, conflict and dilemma. Especially the changes of gender roles and gender relations seem to cause challenges for new adjustments in everyday life. Not only women find it difficult to balance work and (family) life but also men find it confusing sometimes, and seem to be lost in the midst of changes. One of the latest developments, which are bound to transform the Korean society, is the abolition of hojuje(traditional family registry system) (see the box below). The revision of the Family Law is expected to transform the very basic fabric of gender relations.

• New Family Registry System to Change Male-Dominant Society
(Korea Times, December 30, 2004)
The patriarchal family registry system, which has long been blamed for discrimination against women, will likely be abolished early next year. The scrapping of the system will bring significant changes to male-dominant Korean society, which has respected Confucian philosophy for several hundred years.
On Dec. 27, lawmakers of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee at the National Assembly made a breakthrough by agreeing to submit the revision of the civil law to abolish “hojuje,”or the traditional family registry system to parliament in February.
It has taken about five years since women’s civic coalition filed a petition to abolish hojuje to the Assembly in 2000. The abolishment of the system is expected to bring significant changes in South Korean society, which has long been a male-oriented culture.
The patriarchal family registration system, which gives legal authority to the male family head, or ``hoju,’’ will be replaced with an alternative registration system after a grace period for preparation. The revision bill will pave the way for children to change their surnames, which were traditionally only taken from their father’s.
Children of divorced or remarried families will be allowed to change their original surnames to their stepfather or mother’s surname, if the bill passes through the National Assembly. In addition, children can take their mother’s surname if both the mother and father agree. But the bill states that children, in principle, will still use the surnames of their fathers.
Under the system, the status of each family member is defined in relation to the male family head, or hoju. Upon marriage, women are taken from the register headed by their father and then placed under a new one headed by her husband.
Women activists have long demanded the system be scrapped, saying it generated discrimination toward women by allowing only men to legally head the family. However, if the bill passed through the National Assembly in February, it is likely to face harsh protest from Confucian traditionalists, who still prefer sons over daughters and are accustomed to having their family lineage succeeded by male children.
Accordingly, a bumpy road lies ahead until the revision plan’s legislation, as conservative groups, who believe the hoju system protects the very pillars of Korean society, are expected to protest against the move. Conservatives and traditional scholars strongly argue that the abolition of the system will result in the collapse of families and seriously jeopardize social order.

Until recently, the relationship between family and state in Korea was characterized as “family first, then government” for welfare provision. This means that family has been responsible for taking care of their own members, and only when individuals were left without such support, would the government provide residual benefits through public assistance. Researchers on Korean welfare state have begun to write about the role of family as an essential provider of welfare and the state’s weak role in social security provisions (Kim, 2002; Lee, 2002)
However, the economic crisis of late 1990s, and the post-crisis reforms through the adoption of "Productive Welfare," signaled a regime transformation from the earlier pre-crisis "development state" regime in which the welfare component was residualized, to the one of democratic-welfare-capitalist regime, in which three components of democracy, market economy and welfare interact and reinforce each other (Lee & Park, 2003). Even though we cannot yet forecast the degree to which state intervention expands, the public responsibility for welfare is expected to grow for some time in order to meet the challenges unprecedented demographic shifst.

III. Towards Conceptualizing and Constructing Gender-Sensitive Family Policy in Korea

What constitutes family policy in Korea? Until recently, social policies such as childcare policy or maternity leave were identified as either social welfare policy or women’s policy or family policy depending on the context in which they were discussed. The definition of family policy is not yet clear, but in this section, family policy classified by the Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization will be introduced, and five different legal measures will be presented in order to give a glimpse of the spectrum of Korean family policies. Some gender issues inherent in existing family policies will also be discussed for each measure.
Table 6 is a classification of family policy outlined by the Presidential Committee. It outlined the seven categories of family needs and identified relevant policies, which expands into the work of different ministries.

Classification of Family Policy
Needs of Families Policies Ministries in Charge
Increased awareness about family values and mores Civil codes, Basic Act on Women’s Development, Income tax law, Equal employment Act, Criminal codes, Social Security Act, etc. Ministries of Justice, Finance and Economy, Gender Equality, Labor, Health and Welfare
Income Income security
Tax exemption
Income benefits of employment insurance and industrial accident insurance, family(child) allowance Ministries of Finance and Economy, Labor, Health and Welfare
Health Health care Ministry of Health and Welfare
Care Support for elders Services and programs for elderly: community based care, health screening, socialized care Ministry of Health and Welfare, local governments
Care for children Services and programs for childcare: childcare leave, child support, independent living programs for youth without parents, social integration and family support for disabled children Ministries of Gender Equality, Administration and Home Affairs, Justice, Health and Welfare
Housing Housing programs: single parent families, recipients of public assistance, single-person households Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Local governments
Psychosocial Alternative programs and services: family counseling, family social work, family therapy, family education, family advocacy, family support services, prevention and therapy for domestic violence, services for independent, group homes, shelters, short stay, foster care Ministries of Gender Equality, Health and Welfare
Socialization Social norms: parent education, family life education in high school, parenting education, elimination of discrimination Ministries of Gender Equality, Culture and Tourism, Education

1) Welfare Act for Older Persons (1981)

Korean government enacted the Welfare Act for Older Persons in 1981 and has implemented various programs to provide benefits to the elderly and their families. The majority of the budget is allocated for universal transportations allowance and means-tested supplemental income. Also, much of the resources are used for providing residential services for low-income elderly who are left alone without familial support. Almost 75 percent of such residents are female.
In terms of community-based care, it is estimated that there are approximately 714,000 elderly who need services. In 2001, there were 16,663 elderly over 65 years of age who had access to community-based services (0.4% of elderly population). The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has a plan to establish public long-term care system in the year 2007. In order to support the families who care for elderly at home, tax exemption and cash assistance schemes are also being considered.
Women comprise not only the majority of the recipients of services for low-income elderly, but also make up the majority of caregivers. More services for caregivers such as education, counseling, self-help groups, family care leave and respite care are also needed in order to help women and their families alleviate the burden of care and pursue a balance between informal care and formal employment.

2) Mother-(Father)-Child Welfare Act (1989)

In 1989, Mother-Child Welfare Act was legislated to support low-income single mother families. This Act was amended in 2002 and was renamed as Mother-Father-Child Welfare Act to cover low-income single fathers who also needed government assistance. Low- income single parents are the primary service targets of social workers in the public sector, community welfare agencies and women’s organizations as they have become more visible in our society. Recently, the issues of ‘new poverty’ entered the policy discourse, and the working poor families have emerged as a new target for social safety net.
The Act provides housing support, job training and employment assistance, childcare and tuition assistance. Single parent families make up approximately 6% of total households, but only about 7% of them are eligible for government support(Park, 1999). Recent studies on low-income single mothers showed that most of them suffer from job insecurity, health problems, child rearing difficulties, housing problems and others(Park, 1999). The problems of accessibility and adequacy of benefits still remain to be tackled for single parent families.

3) Infant-Child Care Act (1991)

Childcare has been identified one of the most significant barriers to women’s labor market participation. As dual income families increased in recent years, so has the number of child care services in Korea. Infant-Child Care Act was enacted in 1991 to guide the establishment and operation of day care services. The purpose of this Act was to help family caregivers who could not take care of their own children because of either work or illness. For the first time in history, the central and local governments and the whole public had acknowledged the need to share the responsibility for childcare.
The budget for childcare has grown almost ten times between 1991 and 2002. There were 22,147 daycare centers and 800,991 children attended them in 2002. This is almost three times as many children compared to that of 1995. However, less than 6% of the daycare centers were public, and the rest were operated in private sector. Among the children using daycare services, 24.1%(192,762 children) received government assistance in either tuition aid or exemption form (free day care for 86,982 children). According to the Census of 2000, 41.8% of children under the elementary school age are taken care of by parents whereas 29.7% children of single parents are being taken care of at home during the day. Moreover, 9.1% of children of single parents are left alone during day compared to 2.6% of children of two-parent families. The number of children living with single parents has increased over the last decade from 2.8% in 1990 to 5% in 2000 (National Statistical Office, 2003). This indicates that children of single parent families are in greater need for social care.

4) National Basic Livelihood Security System (1999)

Korean government has responded to the issues of the poor mainly through the public assistance program started in 1961 as the Livelihood Protection Scheme. In the beginning, minimal income was provided to the recipients, but later on work program(1968), medical assistance(1978) and tuition assistance for middle school children(1979) were provided. In 1999, public assistance program was expanded to cover families whose income falls below the national minimum household income. This newly designed public assistance program is called the National Basic Livelihood Security System and it contains a ‘workfare’ component under the Self-Reliance Policy. The Self-Reliance Policy provides opportunity to participate in publicly arranged work programs, medical assistance, childcare and school fees and counseling services. As the end of 2001, 1,345,526 persons received public assistance while 46,000 persons participated in the self-reliance program. Women make up 70% of the participants in the self-reliance program and half of them were middle aged single mothers.
Numerous changes need to be made in order to enhance the system’s effectiveness(Park and others, 2002). Family responsibility has been reduced to the boundary of nuclear family. This reflects the weakening values of informal familial support (KIHASA, 2003). It has become unrealistic for grandparents to be responsible for the well-being of their grandchildren and vice versa.

5) Maternity Protection Scheme (2001)

Maternity Protection legislation was amended in 2001 to expand the coverage of maternity and childcare leave. This law is based upon three Acts (Equal Employment Act, Labor Standards Act and Employment Insurance Act), which provide benefits for maternity protection. Since the amendment, maternity leave was extended to 90 days from previous 60-day protection. The employer covers 60 days, and the Employment Insurance and the general budget cover the rest. Parents of children under 12 months can use paid childcare leave. The Employment Insurance covers the cost for childcare. The employee on leave is paid 300,000 won per month.
A sample survey done in the first year of the expanded maternity protection showed that 14% of the employees used childcare leave, which is a slight increase from previous years. Maternity protection scheme is regarded as one of the ambitious family-friendly labor policy in Korea. But only 25.9% of women in the irregular workforce are covered by employment insurance which means that the majority of the female workforce still have very limited accessibility to maternity (National Statistical Office, 2000),

6) Basic Act on Healthy Family (2003)

Basic Act on Healthy Family was enacted in 2003 for the purpose of maintaining healthy family life, and of supporting the maintenance and development of family. A new service delivery system of “healthy family support centers” was created and the central and local governments are responsible for financial support of programs aimed at following objectives.

- Support for physical and psychological health of family member
- Income maintenance and security
- Housing support
- Support for prenatal care, birth and child raising
- Balance between work and family
- Protection from environmental risk such as pornography, violence
- Protection from domestic violence
- Family –friendly culture

It is interesting to note that from the very beginning, an alternative approach framed in “Basic Act for Family Support” has been developed by a group led by women’s organizations and some social work researchers. They have pointed out the limitations of the Basic Act on Healthy Family from a feminist perspective on the following grounds:

- The Healthy Family Act not only rests on the traditional ideology of nuclear family but it also aim at the recovery of healthy family as a method of overcoming family crisis
- It takes on a functional approach
- It lacks comprehensive approach to solving family problems
- It lacks a gender perspective – reinforcing the traditional roles of women
- Overlap of services with existing social welfare services

The advocates of the Basic Act for Family Support emphasize the importance of recognizing the diversity of families, and development of family friendly policies in all sectors of public life. The proposed family support polices include a spectrum of programs such as maternity protection, paternity rights and participation in housework, expansion of state responsibility for childcare and eldercare, work and family balance, social market jobs, emergency relief for high risk families, mediation services and support for divorces families, family leave, income maintenance, democratic and equal family relationship, prevention and elimination of domestic violence, participation of families in community activities, creation of family-friendly social environment and family culture.

V. Conclusion

As mentioned before, family problems used to be more or less a personal matter, and were left to the individuals and family members to deal with. But now, the family has become a central topic in social policy dialogue as well as in national policy making processes. Moreover, it seems to play a key role in transforming the landscape of the welfare regime in Korea.
Family is an agent and a beneficiary of socio-economic development. Amidst all the confusion and the diversity of opinions, the theme of “balancing (family) life and work” stand out as cross-cutting topic for contemporary Koreans. Traditional roles prescribed to women and men no longer are viable for the sustainable development family life and of post-industrial economy. Thus by responding to family pressures, policy makers are redesigning the social policy in Korea. The social cost of low fertility, aging of population and weakening of family ties and roles will result in the expansion of social service sector as we have never experienced before.
Care for children and elderly population will require a mass increase in public cost. To what degree are we willing to socialize such care and to what degree can we afford it? We do not have clear answers yet. At this point, we are talking about the pressing need for social intervention. However, before we venture into the unknown land, we might benefit from more sophisticated analysis of the gender impact and accountability. The public and policy makers want to know if we are making the right choices and whether we are headed for the right direction because we cannot afford to fail in achieving both economic growth and protection of individual freedom and dignity.
The Ministry of Gender Equality is challenged by the need to develop family policies that would meet both practical and strategic needs of women and men, and that will also guarantee equal accessibility to benefits and happiness of all family members. There is no doubt that Korean people have already begun a new journey into the transformation of gender roles and relations. Gender-sensitive family policies are required to help support this endeavor and ultimately help fulfill the goal of achieving gender equality in our society.

References

Byun, H. S. & Others (2000), A Study on Family Breakdown and Welfare Measures, Ministry of Health and Welfare & Korean Women’s Development Institute
Chang, H. K. & Others (2002), A Study on Family Policy of Korea and Other Countries and Measures to Systematize Administrative Structure, Korean Women’s Development Institute.
Chang, J. Y. (2002), Survey of Maternity Leave and Childcare Leave Usage, Ministry of Labor.
Chung, K. H. & Others (1998), Survey on Living Situation and the Welfare Needs of Korean Elderly, Korean Institute of Health and Social Affairs.
Esping-Andersen (ed.) (1996), Welfare States in Transition: National Adaptations in Global Economies, New York: Sage Publications.
Esping-Andersen, G. D. Gallie, A. Hemerijck & J. Myles (2002), Why We Need a New Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Han, H.B.(2004), “A Discussion on an Alternative to the Basic Act on Healthy Family and the Problems of Family Policy Delivery System,” in Proceedings from Kyunggi Women’s Forum 2004.
Han, J.J. (2001), A Survey on Korean Women’s Attitude on Life and Work, Ministry of Gender Equality.
Kamerman, S. B. & A. J. Kahn (Eds.) (1978), Family Policy: Government and Families in Fourteen Countries, New York: Columbia University Press.
KIHASA & MOHW (2001), Survey of Long-Term Care Needs and Policy, Research Report.
Kim, J. I. &. Huh, H. R (1999), Development of Leisure Education Programs for Older Women, Korean Women's Development Institute.
Kim, M. K.(2001), Basic Livelihood Guarantee System as a Social Safety Net, National Workshop on Social Safety Nets, January 19m , Workshop proceedings.
Korean Women’s Associations United (2003), Towards Gender-Sensitive Family Policy, Proceedings from Policy Roundtable.
Kim, Y.M.(2002), “Changes in Social Welfare Policy and its Characteristics during the Kim Dae Jung’s Government,” in Kim, Y.M.(Ed.), Debate on the Korean Welfare State, Seoul: Human Being & Welfare.
Lee, H.K (1999), “Globalization and the Emerging Welfare State – The Experience of South Korea”, International Journal of Social Welfare, Vol 8: 23-37.
Lee, H.K. (2002), “Women in Poverty, Public Assistance, and Welfare Services in Korea”, Korea Journal, Vol. 42, No.2.
Lee, H.K..& Y.R. Park (2003), “Families in Transition and the Family Welfare Policies in Korea,” Paper presented at the Canada-Korea Social Policy Research Co-operation Symposium, Seoul, Korea, November 22, 2003.
Lee, Y.B., & M.J. Lee (2003), “Changes in Korean Families and Family Policy,” Family and Culture, Vol. 15/1, pp.131-158.
Lord, S. (1993), Social Welfare and the Feminization of Poverty, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
National Statistical Office (2003), Summary of 2002 Marriage and Divorce Statistics.
Pak, P. H., Min, M. H. & Kang, Y. S. (1999), Social Safety Net for the Most Vulnerable Groups in the Republic of Korea, UNDP Working Paper Series (II).
Park, Y.R (1998). A Study on Measures for Self-Sufficiency of Low-Income Single Mother Families, Korean Women’s Development Institute.
Park, Y.R., J.I. Hwang (2002). A Study on the Situation of Women’s Poverty and the Effectiveness of National Minimum Livelihood Security System, Korean Women’s Development Institute.
Shin, E.J.(2004), “A Direction for Family Policy,” in Proceedings from Kyunggi Women’s Forum 2004.
Status of Women Canada (1996), Gender-Based Analysis: A guide for policy-making, Canada Working Document.
United Nations (1996), Family: Challenges for the Future, New York: United Nations Publications.

DATE: 2007.07.23 - 04:07

A Permanent Solution to a Temporary Problem? 50 years of Korean Adopti...

Adoption in Korea, Then and Now 2003