Korea Case Study stats + Future directions

Question 1

What is the trend in the percentage of women who were considered the head of the household from 2010 to 2020? What is the significance?

Answer 1

31.9% in 2020, 5.8% increase from 2010

Significant as it shows shifting gender roles due to westernisation, and women are treated more equally on a micro scale

Question 2

What is the trend in number of women living alone from a certain time period? What is the significance?

Answer 2

2022 - 3.094 million women lived alone. Increase of 4% since 2000

Significant as it shows women are beginning to defy social norms of having to get married in preference for their jobs.

Question 3

What is the number of Korean women being abused in the years ___ and ___?
What is the significance?

Answer 3

2020 - 353 947
Increase of 85.4%
since 2009

Significant as it shows the reason for the growth in the #metoo movement, and shows the abuse of women in a largely patriarchal society.

Question 4

What is the gender pay gap in 2019? What was the reduction from 2010? What is the trend? What is the significance?

Answer 4

It is slowly reducing
2019- 32.5%, reduction of 7.1% from 2010.

It is significant as it shows that women are slowly being integrated in the economic activities, and shows the slow acceptance of women into jobs and the defiance of traditional values

Question 5

What is the percentage of women who believed that marriage is necessary from ___to ___? What is the significance?

Answer 5

Drop from 65% (2010) to 48% (2019)

Indicates that there is a defiance of tradition in Korea as in the past the expectation for women due to Confucian tradition is to get married and raise a family, thus showing a change in Korean society

Question 6

How percentage of Koreans think housework should be equally shared in ___? What is the change from ___? Why is this significant?

Answer 6

62.5% of Koreans thought a couple should share housework. This is up 3.4% from 2019.

This is significant as it indicates a changing social expectation of the role of women in Korean society

Question 7

What percentage of students study to avoid shame in doing poorly at school in 2020? Why is this significant?

Answer 7

31%

This is significant as it indicates that there is a strong social expectation to do good at school. Supports the idea of the continuity of Confucian ideas when it comes to education in Korea. Also shows that the percentage has increased since 2018

Question 8

What percentage of students study to avoid punishments or reprimands for not studying in 2020? Why is this significant?

Answer 8

15.9%

This is significant as it supports the continuity of Confucian ideals of doing good at education. Also shows that the percentage has increased since 2018

Question 9

What percentage of households responded that educational expenditures of children were burdensome? What is the significance?

Answer 9

64.1%

This is significant as it indicates that despite the financial burden, families have a social pressure to provide a good education anyways for their children

Question 10

What percentage of Koreans used online media for learning? What is the significance?

Answer 10

41.1%

This is significant as it indicates that technology is playing a greater part in people’s education, and when they learn, they are also exposed to Western ideas of individualism etc. which cause change.

Question 11

What percentage of girls continued their education in middle school, high school and university as opposed to another year. (Identify the years which these statistics describe the trends in, i.e. 1942 to 1950)

What is the significance?

Answer 11

1966 - 33% (middle school), 20% (high school), 4% (university)

1988 - 99..5% (middle school), 61.6% (high school and university)

Significant as it indicates that there is a denial of tradition that women shouldn’t be included in the working society. This has thus resulted in a lot of change as education empowers women to speak out about different abuses that they have faced.

Question 12

What was the average monthly cost of private education per student? What is it’s significance?

Answer 12

289 000 won

This is significant as it shows that families are willing to spend a lot of their income to help fuel education out of hopes that it will lead to better things in the future

Question 13

What is the mean marriage age of men in ____ vs ____? What is the significance?

Answer 13

33.2 Years (Increase of 4 years from 2000)

Significant as it indicates that men as well don’t want to get married, and spend more time considering whether or not they want to get married

Question 14

What is the mean marriage age of women in two different years? What is the significance?

Answer 14

30.8 Years (Increase of 4 years from 2000)

Significant as it indicates that women don’t want to sacrifice their early career to start a family

Question 15

How much has the government spend in perks for families and subsides for children?

What is the significance?

Answer 15

$152.3 trillion won by 2025

Significant as it shows the desperate situation in Korea, with an increasingly ageing country, and not enough families being formed because of defiance of social norms and not wanting to sacrifice careers

Question 16

What number of people were married out of 1000 people in Korea? Why is this significant?

Answer 16

4.2 people

This is significant as it means that society as a whole as rejected the idea of marriage due to values of individualism and defiance of Confucian tradition

Question 17

Have organisations instructed managers to manipulate scores of applicants to get rid of women who pass and replace them with men? If so, why is it significant

Answer 17

Yes. It is significant as it shows that a form of institutional discrimination exists in Korea

Question 18

What percentage of women aged 15-64 work in Korea? What is the OECD average? Why is this significant?

Answer 18

56%. OECD average is 60%

Significant as it shows that institutions still refuse to accept women into the working places due to gender discrimination

Question 19

What kind of questions were asked by South Korean businesses prior to the blind hiring laws? Why is this significant? (3)

Answer 19

Are both your parents alive?

What high school did your parents go to?

Do you drink?

Significant as it indicates that institutions care a lot about applicants social standing, and are less likely to employ people of ‘less’ social standing

Question 20

What is the OECD average of gender wage gap?

Answer 20

13.8%

Question 21

What percentage of 760 companies surveyed asked for a photo in their job application in 2016? What is the significance?

Answer 21

93%

Significant as it provides a reason behind the beauty standards in Korea. And emphasises the idea of beauty in Korea

Question 22

What percentage of recruiters say they can judge an applicants personality through photos?

Answer 22

45.2%

Question 23

What percentage of women are sexually assaulted or harassed by colleagues?

Answer 23

6 out of 10

Question 24

What are 6 examples of abuse/discrimination against women in Korea?

Answer 24

A woman was sexually assaulted by a colleague, and when it was reported got transferred to a different department

A governor was accused of rape by his secretary but was acquitted of 10 charges on the basis that the victims’ testimony was not credible. Depicting the gendered injustice in Korea’s legal system

Church Leader was sentenced to 15 years for the rape of 8 women

A woman was arrested for photographing a man without knowledge and uploading it to the web was sentenced 10 months imprisonment, whereas a man charged with the same crime only got a fine

Education continuing to encourage sexual abuse against women

Seoul Metro lowering the scores of female applicants to decrease their chances of getting jobs

Question 25

What is the likely importance of technologies in Korea? (6)

Answer 25

It has had massive impact on:

Korean wave

Unrealistic beauty standards through kpop and kdrama

Addiction/cyberbullying

Education

Continue to westernise and modernise Korea and thus
increase the number of people who refuse tradition such as filial piety, the want to get married

Technology allows for a platform for Koreans to organise social movements such as the #metoo movement

Question 26

identify the probable future directions for South Korea (7)

Answer 26

1. The gender pay gap will most likely continue to decrease in following years due to women persisting in their attempts at working, and the raise of awareness of the gender pay gap in Korea, thus forcing institutions to do something about it.
2. The percentage of women who view marriage as necessary will most likely decrease in the coming years. This is because of the Western values of individualism inspiring women to defy social traditions of getting married, and instead focus on themselves and pursue their own careers
3. The number of women who are being sexually abused or assaulted in a workplace environment is most likely going to decrease. This is because of the massive movement of #metoo, which raises awareness on this topic. Furthermore, there is a social pressure for the legal system to act on these cases of sexual abuse, thus reducing the number of people willing to do this abuse out of fear of getting caught.
4. The percentage of people getting married will further decrease from it’s already low 4.2/1000 as ideas of individualism infiltrate Korean society, and more Koreans want to focus on themselves and looking after themselves over the social norm of having to raise a family
5. The average cost of private education (of around 289 000 won) will most likely stagnate, as the Confucian expectation to do well in school to increase opportunities later on in life continue in Korean society
6. The percentage of women who work in Korea will most likely continue to increase, as women slowly become more accepted in Korean working society. Furthermore, as social movements continue to pressure institutions to accept more women, this number is going to increase.
7. The number of organisations asking for personal details in order to hire someone is most likely going to start to decrease. This is because of the new ‘blind hiring laws’ introduced.