Flexible working to help women pursue careers

Gender Equality and Family Minister Paik Hee-young speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at her office in Seoul. She says flexible working arrangements will help women continue their career and ultimately boost the country’s growth potential in the long haul. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul Gender equality minister pledges measures for immigrant wives Competition is getting fiercer in every sector of the Korean society. To hang onto their jobs and get promoted, many salaried workers here come to office early in the morning and work late into night. In order not to lag behind their colleagues, they are under pressure to overwork, leaving little time for their families. Tied to their work, fathers can ill-afford to share house chores with their wives. Women eventually tend to sacrifice their career to take care of their children. Against this backdrop, women are increasingly opting not to give birth to children due to the difficulty raising children without support from their husbands. Gender Equality and Family Minister Paik Hee-young is committed to fixing this vicious cycle. As the chief overseeing the nation’s policies on women, she believes a greater role from fathers in every family is the most important ingredient to make women policy a success story. “With fathers taken hostage at workplaces, our homes are brimming with troubles. To pull families out of the trouble, a greater role from fathers at home is a must,” Paik said in an interview with The Korea Times. “Fathers are so busy that they have no time to play with their children. This should change. Children need more care from their fathers.” She said it’s also very important for the quality of life for fathers themselves. In nuclear family, if fathers would not do their role, children will have no chances to mingle with men, she said. “Fathers need to spend more time raising their kids. In the past, there were men, like grandfathers and uncles, around children. But if a father is not at home, kids have no man around these days,” she said. “It’s not men’s fault. They should be given more leeway from heavy work.” She said the whole society needs to pay more attention on the issue. “Bringing back fathers to home is the most effective way to resolve a lot of troubles at home. They should spend more time with children and help house chores. By doing so, women will be able to do more actively engage in workplaces.” Paik said the government and companies need to work together to achieve the goal. “We are going to do more education on this issue along with companies. And we will ask companies to take steps to reduce work hours for fathers,” she said. Flexible work arrangements Paik has stressed the importance of “flexible work programs” that allow employees to more flexibly adjust work hours. “Staying longer at office doesn’t necessarily mean they perform well. The ultimate goal of the introduction of the flexible work program is to give more time for workers to take care of their families,” she said. At the same time, it will help women continue their careers. The program is to help married female employees balance between work and domestic affairs. “In order to tackle low birthrate and help those who gave up their careers due to families, we have to build up working environment where female workers easily deliver birth and care for their children,” Paik said. “This is the reason why flexible working arrangements should be more expanded to many working places. Under the program, married women could choose to work part time for the time being after childbirth. This way, she can continue professional career, while caring for their children.” The ministry plans to encourage more companies, particularly public sector first, to offer such programs by offering incentives. It has already introduced a flexible work system to its own employees and is promoting the program to other public agencies. Currently, some 20 government agencies run shorter-time working system and 11 public organizations have adopted flexible working system. Gender gap Apart from the issue, Paik sees Korean women’s status in society is still far low, comparing to economic power and size of the country. “We are preparing a variety of policies to improve gender equality and give women more opportunities to participate in economic activities with financial support,” she said. According to the Gender Gap Index report, released during the World Economic Forum, this month, social and economic status of women in Korea ranked 104th out of the total 134 countries. Especially, Korea gained poor scores in economic participation and political power of women. “We will create more working places for women and support them to land on jobs. We will also promote family-friendly culture at working places in order to help women balance work and a family,” she said. Steps for immigrant wives Paik said the government will take diverse measures for immigrant wives to smoothly settle here, sending immigration officials to some Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam and the Philippines to build “healthy marriage culture” here and abroad. As more and more Korean men are looking for wives from developing countries, matchmaking companies have mushroomed and some of them were involved in illegal practices including unlicensed operations and the provision of false information on a partner’s personal profile. These unlawful practices have been highlighted by the murder of a Vietnamese bride by her mentally-ill Korean husband last July and a series of measures by the government came up to stem the recurrence of such a tragedy. “We have intensified requirements for registration of matchmaking agencies and will bring a light to the industry by nurturing more non-profit marriage agencies. We will soon send marriage immigration officials to the countries,” Paik said. She recently visited Vietnam to discuss officials there to help create healthier international marriage culture and protect human rights of Vietnamese women. “I believe more non-profit marriage firms should be set up and the immigration officials will contribute to solve problems of immigrant women in cooperation with the agencies. Nonghyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation) is one of good examples running non-profit matchmaking agency,” Paik added. Currently, the ministry mandates Koreans looking for a foreign spouse to complete pre-marriage education about the legal system and culture of the countries that their wives come from, to protect immigrant wives. In addition, an emergency call center for immigrant wives (1577-1366) and websites will have their available languages become more diversified. The gender equality minister stressed caring interracial families is one of core three state projects. There are 159 care centers for interracial families across the country. The centers provide those families with Korean language courses and caring mixed children. The ministry plans to increase the centers up to 200 next year and the staffers to 3,200 from current 2,240. “The staffers visit those families and counsel even Korean mother-in-laws,” she said. “Despite some tragic cases of immigrant wives, there are many more happy cases. About 76 percent of the Vietnamese wives are happy about their marriages with Korean husbands, according to Vietnamese embassy here.” The minister had a meeting with prime minister of the country where many Korean people and companies run business. Paik also mentioned there are big gaps of expectations between Korean husbands and wives from developing countries. “Many (foreign) wives have wrong ideas about life here through Korean dramas. As many wives are young, it is also matter of juveniles,” she said. Who is Paik Hee-young? Born in 1950 in Seoul, Paik studied Mississippi University for Women and gained a bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition. She also gained her doctorate degree in nutrition from Harvard School of Public Health. Paik started teaching students ecology at Sookmyung Women’s University from 1984 and served as president of the Korean Nutrition Society and as vice president of the Korea Federation of Women’s Science & Technology Associations. She has two children and served the top position of the gender ministry since September, 2009.

source:koreatimes