This year, President Moon Jae-in, who describes himself as a feminist president, is testing a new angle: showing women more respect.
At the end of last year, South Korea announced plans to remove some of the disincentives for employing women, allowing both parents to take parental leave at the same time and extending paid paternal leave.
Employers also get incentives to allow either parent to work fewer hours.
“Efforts on gender equality are very timely,” said Shin Eun-kyung, an economist with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
South Korea is the worst place for women to work in the OECD, despite women being among the organisation’s best educated, and more highly so than men.
But the measures go beyond the workplace: mothers can choose to give the baby their own last name.
Social campaigns will encourage men to participate more in child care and household chores.
Contrast that with a 2016 effort by the previous government, run by the country’s first woman president, Park Geun-hye, which launched a website carrying a real-time statistical heatmap of women of child-bearing age, marriages and births in the hope of spurring competition between cities and regions.
The website was taken down after one day.
South Korea’s demographic time bomb is ticking louder.
The government’s latest forecast sees its population declining from 2027, and a presidential committee said the country’s economic growth potential could fall to below 1%. Birth rates have long been a policy priority: since 2006, the government has spent 152.9tn won ($135.65bn) — about the size of an economy like Hungary or Nevada — on perks for families and subsidies for children from birth through university and beyond.
Last year’s 26.3tn low birth policy budget was more than half the defence spending of a country technically still at war with its northern neighbour.
But demographic experts say money is not the main issue: the experience of advanced countries with higher birth rates, such as France or Sweden, shows gender equality plays a crucial role.
The previous allocation of resources drew criticism as well.
The government went far beyond child allowances and subsidising care and education.
For instance, it funded temple stays for family bonding and financed youth seeking brief jobs abroad.
Many such programmes will end, with the 2019 birth-support budget cut by a quarter, to 20.5tn won.
About 56% of women aged 15-64 work in South Korea, below the OECD average of almost 60%, and 72-75% in Denmark and Sweden, where birth rates are among the highest of advanced economies.
Recruiters say married young women are less likely to get job opportunities due to discrimination.
South Korea’s gender wage gap is highest among advanced countries at 34.6%, above OECD average of 13.8%. Critics say while Moon’s approach to birth rates is an improvement, his job and housing policies discourage parenthood.
Minimum wage hikes have led to higher unemployment, while larger downpayment requirements have made homes unaffordable for many.
