The woman battling S Korea's 'birth strike'

The woman appointed to try to reverse the world's lowest birth rates knows better than most why billion-dollar campaigns to encourage South Korea's female populace to procreate have failed - she is among the millions who have chosen to remain childless in the face of traditionalist social expectations.
A history professor at a Seoul university before joining the government, family minister Chung Hyun-Back says she remained single to pursue her professional ambitions.
Entrenched gender roles at home and a workaholic culture are pushing the next generation of South Korean women to follow suit, warned the 64-year-old.
"It was extremely difficult -- if not impossible -- to juggle an academic career while getting married and raising children," she explained, pointing out that many female professors in their 50s and 60s are single.

Rapid economic growth over several decades has seen South Korea's GDP boom, but birth rates have gone in the opposite direction.
The country's fertility rate -- an average number of babies women are expected to have in their lifetime -- stood at 1.17 in 2016, the lowest in the world and compared to a global average of 2.4.

It is set to fall to a record low of 1.07 for 2017 after the number of newborns sank below 400,000 for the first time.
The trend, coupled with the rapid ageing of its 50- million populace, casts a pall over the nation's future -- its population is projected to start shrinking in 2050.

Experts blame sky-high housing prices, the costs of raising children, and fears over unemployment.
But Chung told AFP: "For years, we have overlooked the real culprit of the problem -- our country's vast gender disparity and inhumanely long working hours."
South Korea has the second-highest average working hours in the OECD but women are still expected to be children's primary caregiver, whether they work or not.
Many firms prefer to drive pregnant staff to resign rather than pay for maternity leave, and those who return to work are seen as having damaged their career prospects.
"Under such unfair circumstances, young women usually choose their career, not marriage and childbirth," says Chung.

The phenomenon has been dubbed a "birth strike".
"Unless we tackle these problems head-on, South Korea's future will remain murky with the young generation staying away from marriage -- not to mention childbirth," said Chung.
A recent survey showed 68 per cent of female college students intended to marry -- compared to 80 per cent for males. Dual burdens at home and work were the top concern cited by the women who did not intend to marry.
Among the world's advanced economies South Korea consistently ranks at the bottom of OECD surveys on gender pay gaps or female presence in senior positions.

Yet the reverse is true in education: girls beat boys in scholastic achievement tests, with about 75 per cent of them going to college compared to 67 per cent for their male counterparts.
About 70 per cent of South Korean women in their 20s have jobs, compared to 60 per cent of men.
But in their 30s the female employment rate dives to about 55 per cent, far below males' 90 per cent.