| kwwa |
2002-10-28 14:56:44, 조회 : 416 |
Women's Life Cycle and Participation in the Labor Market : Current Situation Tasks / by Taehong Kim
/ KWDI Research Reports /Women's Studeis Forum, Vol.13/December 1997
Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION
According to previous studies on the factors determining the supply of
women's labor, women's participation in the labor market tends to be
influenced by the life events such as marriage, childbirth, and child rearing
more so than men's participation does.
In Korea, also, according to an analysis of the variables influencing women's
labor supply, marriage and child rearing had negative impact on the labor
supply. According to the 1996 Economically Active Population Yearbook
published, by the Bureau of Statistics, Korean women's economic activities
rates by age tend to show a typical M shaped curve. From 13.6% of those
between 15~19 years of age, it reaches a peak of 66.0% between 20~24 years,
and starts decreasing afterwards, to 51.1% for 25~29 years of age and 49.1%
for 30~34 years of age. After 35 years of age the economic activities
participation rate starts increasing again to 60.1% for 35~39 years of age,
reaching the peak of 65.6% for 40~44 years of age. Then it decreases again
afterwards.
However, the previous studies and the participation rates by ages are not
enough to understand women's labor supply patterns by life events. In order
to accurately analyze this supply, we need longitudinal data. However, so far
in Korea the longitudinal data which can grasp women's economic activities
structure by periods and generations have not been produced. As the second
best alternative, A Survey on Women's Employment, published by the KWDI,
contains data on work history. This study analyzes women's labor supply by
life events based on the KWDI's data.
Ⅱ. THEORIES ON WOMEN'S LIFE CYCLE LABOR FORCE
PARTICIPATION
The economic participation rate is determined by the discrepancy between
the offered wage of labor market and the reservation wage which is the value
of domestic labor. For example, when we assume that the offered market wage
is W and the reservation wage is W , the economic participation of the
individual is made when W ] W , that is, when the offered market wage is
greater than the reservation wage. More concretely, the factors that influence
the economic participation of married women are those factors that have
impact on W and W , such as the incomes of the spouse and other family
members, the number of children, and the presence or absence of pre school
age children, level of education, and age.1)J. P. Smith, ed., (1988), pp. 90~118,
W. G. Bowen and T. A. Finegan (1969), pp. 88~158. Other factors that also
have impact on the economic participation of married women are: previous
employment experiences, promotion possibilities and type of employment,
government policies, legal and institutional measures to promote women's
employment, the attitudes of society and the spouse towards women's
employment.
When looking at women's economic activities participation by women's life
cycle,2)In an analysis of women's labor, J. Mincer interpreted economic
activities participation rate as the proportion of the time of life that the
individual participated in economic activities, using the term as a synonym for
the working hours used by the previous analysis of labor supplies. However,
Lewis and Y. Ben Porath distinguished economic participation rate as
discontinuous choice at a certain point of time as to whether to participate in
economic activities or not. In order to consider the life long labor supplies
(economic activities participation rate) as a synonym for working hours, a few
assumptions are necessary, and the most important of these is that everyone is
employed once in a life time. In other words, it is the assumption that
everyone tries to maximize the effect of his or her life.
the reservation wage of married women, which is the value of the time they
spend at home, is different at each stages of life. As is seen on Figure 1, the
level of reservation wage goes up during childbirth and child rearing, and
decreases after the last child enters a school. In comparison, the market wage
increases continuously as the employment continues. Therefore women
participate in the labor market done during the periods when they are single
(b) and after child rearing (c) when the market offered wage is higher than
reservation wage. Lifelong labor supplies will be (b+c)/a in [Figure 1]. When
women exit the labor market at childbirth, the market offered wage after
childbirth will show a much lower level than in [Figure 1] and as a result the
time of reemployment will be much later than the time of completing child
rearing.
Based on such a model, the policies that support women's economic
activities through different stages of life can be divided into two kinds. The
first is to reduce the burden of child rearing and domestic work and to restrict
the increase of reservation wage during marriage, childbirth and child rearing.
In other words, the reservation wage level during `d' period on [Figure 1] is
shifted down so that women will be induced to stay employed rather than
exiting during marriage, childbirth and child rearing. The second is to increase
the market offered wage for the women desiring reemployment. In other
words, the human capital which had been depreciated during staying home is
recovered to the previous level through vocational training and other methods
(policies to provide financial assistance for the vocational training of married
women and service to prepare women for reemployment). Or the government
can provide the firms with monetary incentives to encourage the reemployment
of married women, which is another form of policies to increase the offered
wage level. Most European countries use the former method, while Japan uses
the latter.
Ⅲ. WOMEN'S LIFE CYCLE AND THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE LABOR
MARKET
1. Life Events and Women's Economic Participation
[Table 1] shows the changes in the economic participation of married women
at different stages of life, such as marriage, the birth of the first child and of
the last child and their enrollment in school, based on the raw data on
women's employment history. (The average ages at each life stage were 21.6
years for marriage, 24.7 years for the birth of the first child, and 29.5 years
for the birth of the last child).
As is seen in [Table 1], the economic participation rate right before marriage
was 55.7% which changed after marriage to 36.7%, showing that many
working women exit from the labor market after marriage.3)According to the
research methods to survey employment history utilized by the KWDI, the
terms "economic participation rate" and "the number of the employed" should
more accurately be termed "the rate of having jobs" and "the number of those
with jobs."
When looking at the employment history right after marriage, right before
the birth of the first child, right after the birth of the first child, and right
before the birth of the last child, there is not much difference in the economic
participation rates. However, during the period between right after the birth of
the last child and before the entrance into primary school, the economic
participation rate of married women tends to increase rapidly. It tends to
increase a little after the school enrollment of the last child. This means that
most working women exit the labor market after marriage and find
reemployment right after the birth of the last child, and that most women
seeking reemployment tend to find it before the school enrollment of the last
child.
Women's employment structure also showed considerable changes at
different stages of life. Right before marriage, 64.6% of the employed women
were wage earners. However, most of the female wage earners (74.9%) exited
the labor market right after marriage. In comparison, as the proportion of
women is increased who remained unemployed before marriage but who
entered the labor market as unpaid family workers (42.8% of the unpaid family
workers before marriage), the unpaid family workers right after marriage
increased rapidly to 67.1% of employed women.4)The discrepancy of 30 persons
in the number of the surveyed before marriage(2,463) and after marriage(2,493)
occurred because their ages at the time of marriage were between 14~15 and
the survey on economic activities was not conducted before marriage but right
after marriage.
The proportion of wage earners is further decreased after the birth of the
first child from 25% right after marriage to 15% after childbirth, and further to
10% right after the birth of the last child. The level is maintained afterwards
throughout different life stages. Such a trend in the proportion of wage earners
by different stages of life shows that it is difficult for wage earners to
continue employment after marriage, to carry the dual burden of employment
and childcare, and to find reemployment as wage earners once having exited
the labor market.
When looking at the proportion of the temporary employees among wage
earners, the proportion decreases rapidly immediately after marriage but
gradually increases after marriage in the number and proportion of the female
temporary employees. This shows that there are some opportunities open for
reemployment as temporary employees. As to the number and proportion of
female employers and self employed, they tend to increase through different
life stages. This is because employers and the self employed can manage the
burden of employment and child rearing and women accumulate enough capital
to start businesses as they get older. The number and proportion of unpaid
family workers increase rapidly after marriage and maintain a similar number
and proportion throughout different life stages.
[Table 1] Changes in Women's Employment Patterns through Life Stages
Unit : Persons, %
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marriage First Last first child
Childbirth Childbirth -enrollment
------------- ------------ ------------ ------------
before/after before/after before/after before/after
---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Economic Activities Rate |55.7/36.7 39.1/37.4 39.4/41.8 52.6/56.7
Total Number of Employees |1,347/915 977/859 987/901 912/887
Employer/self-employed | 56/57 67/75 106/111 148/152
Unpaid family workers | 430/614 593/621 648/627 577/531
Regular employees | 774/194 255/103 156/69 55/63
Temporary employees | 114/50 62/60 77/94 132/141
Distribution by Work Status|100.0/100.0 100.0/100.0 100.0/100.0 100.0/100.0
Employer/self-employed | 4.1/6.2 6.9/8.7 10.7/12.3 16.2/17.1
Unpaid family workers |31.3/67.1 60.7/72.3 65.7/69.6 63.3/59.9
Regular employees |56.3/21.2 26.1/12.0 15.8/7.7 6.0/7.1
Temporary employees | 8.3/5.5 6.3/6.9 7.8/10.4 14.5/15.9
Average Age by Life Stages | 21.6세 24.7세 29.5세 35.5세
---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Note : Average age by life stages means the average age of the surveyed by
life stages and is different from the average of the cohort who entered
each life stage in 1992.
The above statistics reveal the following facts about women's economic
activities by life stages. First, most employed women exit the labor market
after marriage, and there are relatively few women who exit due to the first
or last child birth. The period they reenter the labor market after marriage is
between the birth of the last child and his entrance into an elementary school.
While in many other countries women exit of the labor market with the birth
of the first child, Korean women tend to exit with marriage. This is due to
various reasons including the explicit or implicit practices of retirement at
marriage, the reservation wage level which increases considerably with
marriage because of the sexual division of domestic work, or the market
offered wage which is very low due to direct and indirect sexual
discrimination that makes the value of reservation wage exceed the market
offered wage level.
Second, most of the regular employees among female paid workers exit the
labor market with marriage, and even the regular employees who remained
employed after marriage mostly exit the labor market with the birth of the
first child or the second child. Such regular female employees do never return
to the labor market as regular employees even after the completion of the
child rearing period. This phenomenon requires further analysis as to whether
is due to women's preferences or discrimination by employers, but a few
studies concluded that it is because of age discrimination by the employers.
Third, the number of women who enter the labor market after marriage as
unpaid family workers is increasing. Such a phenomenon is due to the fact
that women tend to help small scale self employed businesses run by the
husbands or engage in agricultural labor after marriage. Also, the number of
women who find reemployment as temporary workers or new employment is
continuously increasing. The number of women who are self employed and
employers is continuously increasing with age regardless of the life events of
women.
2. Participation by Education and the Attitudes of the Spouse
[Figure 2] shows women's participation in the labor market at different life
stages by education. According to this figure, the economic activities
participation rate of the women with elementary school graduation or less
continues to show a high level regardless of marriage, childbirth and child
rearing.
However, a considerable number of junior high school graduates, high school,
and college graduates exit the labor market after marriage. As is seen in
[Figure 2], the group with the highest exit rate after marriage ("the number
exiting the labor market with marriage/ the number of workers before
marriage"* 100) is high school graduates. Their economic activities participation
rate of 60.0% before marriage dropped to 19.0% right after marriage.
In addition, timing for reemployment is relatively postponed, and they tend to
find reemployment during the period between the birth of the last child and
the school enrollment of the last child.
A considerable number of junior high school graduates also exits the labor
market with marriage. However, a considerable number of them also find
reemployment right after the birth of the last child, and after the birth of the
last child the economic participation rate was 46.9% which is just a little short
of the level right before marriage. Looking at the trends of college graduates
to participate in economic activities in different life stages, the rate drops
rapidly right after marriage and maintains that level afterwards. In other
words, college graduates show a lower exit rate, but once having exited, they
tend not to return to the labor market again.
[Figure 3] shows the tendency of women to participate in the labor market
according to the attitudes of their husbands towards women's economic
activities. As is seen in [Figure 3], most of the women whose husbands are
negative about women's economic activities tend to exit after marriage. Not
only that, they show a lower rate of reemployment than those whose husbands
show positive or neutral attitudes, and they also tend to find reemployment
after the birth of the last child.
In comparison, the group whose husbands are positive about women's
employment shows the lowest exit rate after marriage, and there is a tendency
for their economic activities participation to increase during the birth of the
first child and the last child. Such a phenomenon shows that the attitudes of
the spouse have a considerable impact on the economic activities of married
women in different stages of life, although it is difficult to reach a conclusion
without controlling the personal variables of each group.
3. Characteristics of Women's Labor Supply by Life Events
As was discussed above, most women e.it the labor market with marriage.
Therefore this study has reviewed the changes in women's economic activities
before and after marriage.
In [Table 2], the proportion of women who participated in economic activities
before marriage was 55.6% (1,376 persons) of all the married women surveyed.
But with marriage 55.5% of them (19.4% in terms of economic participation
rate) exited the labor market. On the other hand, a considerable number of
women who were out of labor market before marriage, entered labor market.
They account for 20.7% of the employed women before marriage (11.5% in
terms of economic activities participation rate). As a result, women's economic
activities participation rate dropped drastically from 55.6% before marriage to
36.2% after marriage.5)If there were no additional inflow of women who were
out of labor market before marriage, the economic activities participation rate
would have dropped even more drastically to 24.7%.
[Table 2] Economic Activities after Marriage
Unit :%, persons
----------+---------------------+-------+---------------------+------------
| Employed |Econo- | Unemployed |Non-
+-------+-------+-----+mically+-------+-------+-----+Economically
| Cont- |Reemp- |Other|Active | Cont- |Reemp- |Other|Active
| inuous|loyment| |Rate | inuous|loyment| |Rate
----------+-------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-------+-----+------------
Before | - | - | - | 55.6 | - | - | - | 44.4
marriage | | | | | | | |
----------+-------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-------+-----+------------
1| 24.7 | 0.0 |11.5 | 36.2 | 33.0 | 30.8 | 0.0 | 63.8
2| 22.2 | 1.2 |12.4 | 35.9 | 31.9 | 29.0 | 3.2 | 64.1
3| 21.0 | 3.5 |12.3 | 36.8 | 30.9 | 28.0 | 4.3 | 63.2
After 4| 21.0 | 5.5 |12.0 | 38.4 | 30.1 | 27.0 | 4.5 | 61.6
marriage 5| 20.8 | 6.9 |12.2 | 39.9 | 29.4 | 25.0 | 5.7 | 60.1
6| 20.6 | 9.5 |12.7 | 42.8 | 28.6 | 22.9 | 5.6 | 57.2
7| 20.9 | 11.5 |12.3 | 44.7 | 27.8 | 21.4 | 6.1 | 55.3
8| 20.9 | 12.9 |12.5 | 46.3 | 27.5 | 19.4 | 6.9 | 53.7
9| 21.5 | 14.9 |12.5 | 48.9 | 26.9 | 17.4 | 6.8 | 51.1
10| 22.1 | 15.5 |13.0 | 50.6 | 26.5 | 15.9 | 7.0 | 49.4
----------+-------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-------+-----+------------
From two years after marriage, a phenomenon appears where the women
who had exited the labor market with marriage find reemployment. In other
words, two years after marriage, 1.2% of all those surveyed (3.4% of all the
employed women) find reemployment. In addition, some of the women who
remained out of labor market enter the labor market anew. However, as some
of the continuously employed women exit the labor market even after two
years of marriage, and their number is larger than those finding reemployment
or new employment, the total economic participation rate declines further to
35.9%. As time passes after marriage, the proportion of the continuously
employed decreases continuously, but the degree of this decrease is quite low.
It reaches the lowest level(20.6%) after si. years. Then starts increasing again,
which seems to be the result of an uncontrolled cohort effect.6)According to an
additional analysis, most of the continuously employed were unpaid workers.
Accordingly, those employed in agriculture and fisheries show a high rate of
continuous employment. Most of the employed of the previous generation are
employed in agriculture and fisheries, and after a certain point the generation
effect is reflected in the statistics.
Furthermore, The number of the reemployed and newly employed tends to
continuously increase. However, with the decrease in the proportion of the
continuously employed, the proportion of those women who remain out of labor
market and those who exited the labor market with marriage and remain out
of labor market also continuously decreases. The reason why the economic
participation rate increases after a certain period of time after marriage despite
the continued decrease of the continuously employed, the continuously
unemployed and those who quit after marriage is that a considerable number
of women change their economic activities patterns by repeatedly exiting,
entering, and exiting again.
Classifying the women according to career patterns after five years of
marriage, 33.0% of all the women were consistently employed (which is a
concept encompassing continuously employed and reemployed in this article),
25.0% retired after marriage, 12.2% find employment after marriage, and 29.4%
remained consistently out of labor market.7)There are many ways to classify
women's career patterns. The classification used in this article is based on the
classification of the Japanese National Institute of Employment and Vocational
Research (1988). The institute classified among "the consistent employed type
who have job not only during the period between school graduation and
marriage but also after marriage," "the retirement after marriage type who
have job during the period between school graduation and marriage but
remains out of labor market after marriage up to the point of survey," "the
employment after marriage type who have no job before marriage but find
employment for the first time after marriage," and "the consistently
unemployed who have never been employed up the survey time." NIEVR(1988),
Women's Occupational Careers in Japan, pp. 16~17.
The proportion of the consistently employed increases considerably to 44.6%
in 10 years after leaving a job, due to the increase in reemployment. However,
when compared with Japan, the proportion of the consistent employed is
relatively low, and that of the consistent unemployed is relatively high, but the
proportion of the employed after marriage is similar. In Japan the proportion of
women who exit the labor market after marriage is higher than in Korea.
When looking at the Japanese data by educational level, the proportion of the
consistently unemployed was higher among the more highly educated, and the
proportion of those who retire after marriage is higher among the high school
graduates and junior college graduates than among college graduates or middle
school graduates. When compared with Japan, in Korea the proportion of the
continuously unemployed women in different stages of life is relatively
considerably high, while the proportion of the women finding reemployment is
similar.
[Table 3] Comparison of Women's Employment Experience Patterns in Japan
and Korea unit: %
---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
| Korea(year after leaving job)
+---------------+---------------+---------------
| 1year | 5year | 10year
---------------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------
Consistent | 24.7 | 33.4 | 44.6
Retirement after marriage | 30.8 | 25.0 | 15.9
Employed after marriage | 11.5 | 12.2 | 13.0
Consistent unemployed | 33.0 | 29.4 | 7.3
---------------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------
---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
| Japan(by education)
+-----------------------------------------------
|Total Middle High Jr.College College
| School School Graduates Graduates
---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Consistent employed | 58.0 60.7 56.5 57.1 52.1
Retirement after marriage | 21.3 15.3 24.7 31.8 20.8
Employed after marriage | 13.3 17.5 11.5 5.9 8.3
Consistent unemployed | 7.3 6.5 7.3 5.3 18.8
---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Source : Japan, NIEVR(1988), Women's Occupational Career in Japan.
When looking at the work status of women workers who exit the labor
market with marriage, 80.6% of the workers who exit are wage earners (70.0%
are regular employees and 10.2% are temporary employees). When looking at
the exit rate of female workers by their work status, the highest is 72.1% of
the temporary employees, 69.3% of regular employees, 50.0% of employers and
the self employed, and 27.6% of unpaid family workers.8)The 69.3% exit rate
of regular employees has policy implications in many aspects. For example, the
exit rate of 69.3% means that 70 women workers out of 100 exit, which means
very few are subject to childcare leave. It is easily confirmed that the fund
size of the socialization of childcare leave incentives and maternity protection
will be a lot smaller than would be expected from cross section data.
As was expected, the exit rate was the highest among the wage workers
whose working hours and environments are relatively inflexible so as to make
it difficult to carry the double burden of employment and domestic chores, and
who tend to feel more pressured to retire voluntarily or involuntarily with
marriagd under the male centered business culture.
As a result, when looking at the employment structure of the women who
continue to work after marriage by work status, the proportion of wage
earners was 64.3% before marriage but drops to 43.8% right after marriage. In
comparison, the proportion of the self employed increases from 31.7% to 51.6%.
In other words, when looking at the employment structure of the continuously
employed, most of the women who continue to work after marriage are the
self employed, and the proportion of the self employed continues to increase as
time passes. In comparison, the proportion of the wage workers decreases
rapidly as time passes after marriage, and there are very few female wage
earners who retire at the retirement age.9)As more time passes after marriage,
there is an analytical limit as the average age of the surveyed increases and
the generation effects are not fully controlled.
[Table 4] Employment Structure of Women before and after Marriage by
Occupational Status unit : %
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employer, Unpaid Regular Temporary Total
Self- Family Employee Employee
Employed Worker
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exit rate 50.0 27.6 69.3 72.1 55.5
Employment Structure by work Status
Before marriage 4.0 31.7 56.1 8.2 100.0
1 4.6 51.6 38.7 5.1 100.0
2 5.1 58.1 32.1 4.7 100.0
After leaving 3 5.1 62.8 27.8 4.3 100.0
job 4 4.3 65.7 25.8 4.1 100.0
5 4.1 68.9 23.1 3.9 100.0
10 3.2 76.5 17.0 3.2 100.0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking at the changes in the economic activities by education, the group
that shows the highest exit rate after marriage is high school graduates
(75.2% of those employed before marriage exited after marriage). The groups
with the next highest exit rates are: junior high school graduates 67.7%,
college graduates 55.0%, elementary school graduates 36.8%, and illiterates
18.2%. The elementary school graduates and illiterates are mostly unpaid
family workers who can carry easily the dual burden of the outside work and
the domestic chores, and cannot afford not to work. Therefore, the proportion
of the continuously employed is high among these groups even after marriage.
And among the middle school graduates and above where the proportion of
wage workers is high, the continued employment rate of the college graduates
tends to be relatively high. It can be speculated that they stay employed
because of relatively high wages and good working condition as well as
serious professionalism, but further studies are required to ascertain the exact
reasons why.
Because of such differences in e.it rate by education, the employment
structures by education of female employees before and marriage were also
very different. The proportion of employed high school graduate female
workers was the highest before marriage as 32.4%, but decreased to 18.0%
after marriage. For middle school graduates, the proportion decreased from
19.8% to 14.4%. In comparison, the proportion of the illiterates and primary
school graduates increased and the proportion of the college graduates also
increased a little.
[Table 5] Employment Structure of Women before and after Marriage by
Education unit : %
----------------+----------------------------------------------------------
|Illiterate Elementary Middle High College Total
| School School School
----------------+----------------------------------------------------------
Exit rate | 18.2 36.8 67.7 75.2 55.0 55.5
Before marriage | 12.5 22.0 19.8 32.4 13.3 100.0
After marriage | 23.0 31.2 14.4 18.0 13.4 100.0
----------------+----------------------------------------------------------
4. The Characteristics of Women Finding Reemployment
The proportion of the reemployed women who were employed while single,
exited the labor market after marriage, and returned to the labor market is
22.2% of the women employed before marriage throughout their life stages.
Within five years after marriage, 6.8% of those employed before marriage
returned to the market, and 15.3% did within 10 years.
Looking at the distribution of women finding reemployment by the time of
reemployment, about 30% return within five years after marriage, 68.6% within
10 years, and 87.2% within 15 years. This shows that reemployment increases
gradually, but by 15 years after marriage reemployment is complete. The
reemployment of married women occurs rather slowly when compared with
Japan which shows similar life stage employment structures; 49.9% found
reemployment within 5 years, 72.3% with in 10 years, and 87.9% within 15
years in Japan.
[Table 6] Distribution of Reemployed Women by the Time of Return
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Years After Leaving Job
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-15 16-30
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The proportion of the reemployed the employed before marriage
% 2.1 1.5 1.4 1.8 1.7 2.0 2.0 1.7 1.1 4.7 2.2
cumulated 2.1 3.6 5.0 6.8 8.5 10.5 12.5 14.2 15.3 20.0 22.2
The distribution of the reemployed by the time of reemployment
% 9.5 6.6 6.2 8.2 7.5 8.9 8.9 7.9 4.9 18.6 12.8
cumulated 9.5 16.1 22.3 30.5 38.0 46.9 55.8 63.7 68.6 87.2 100.0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ⅳ. CONCLUSION
According the analysis so far, one of the most important characteristics of
Korean women's economic activities through different life stages is their exit
from the labor market due to marriage and childbirth. In the Korean labor
market where the firms practice compensation and personnel management
systems based on seniority, such a discontinuity in employment makes it
difficult for women to advance into higher posts, resulting in the vertical
occupational segregation between men and women as well as low wages. In
addition, it is impossible for the companies to get returns for the costs
invested in the education and training of women workers and skill formation of
women workers also becomes difficult. This results in gender discrimination in
education and training as well as various kinds of gender discrimination in
employment and promotion. As a result, the discontinuity in women's
employment due to marriage and childbirth becomes a reason for the
worsening of women's employment structure and various kinds of gender
discrimination in the labor market.
Therefore Korean women's employment policies should be first of all
concentrated on eliminating the factors that cause discontinuity in women's
employment in each life stage. Efforts should be made to promote the lifelong
continued employment of women. In other words, policies should be introduced
which lower the reservation wage curve during the periods between marriage,
childbirth and the completion of childrearing(see Figure 1), so that the
reservation wage level does not exceed the market offered wage level, in order
to induce the continued employment. Of course such policies should include not
only measures to decrease the reservation wage but also measures to eliminate
discriminatory institutions and practices such as retirement on account of
childbirth and child rearing. Secondly, active assistance should be provided to
develop the capacity and to promote the employment of the women who seek
reemployment after having exited the labor market due to marriage, childbirth
and child rearing. This means the implementation of policies which induce
women's return to the labor market by raising the market offered wage level
which remained at the level of exit time or went even below it; also policies
should be implemented which facilitate women's reemployment by upgrading
the employment service for women seeking reemployment.
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