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KMID : 1001320220490040005
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Social Welfare Policy
2022 Volume.49 No. 4 p.5 ~ p.43
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Qualitative Research on Employed Women Who Opt not to Have Children
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Ha Ji-Seoun
Lee Eun-Young
Kim Ji-Seon
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Abstract
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This article investigates how employed women perceive and make decisions on childbirth in daily interactions in their personal lives and workplaces. By looking into employed women’s experiences of making decisions on birth in the context of the employee life cycle, it tries to identify the context in which they opt not to have children and explain the meaning of the decisions. In this regard, the study conducted an inductive-thematic analysis of the in-depth interviews of employed women and men.
The analysis shows that the motherhood employed married women experience in personal daily interactions leads to self-sacrifice, whose extent and content differ in their economic statuses, resources of care, and housing conditions, and therefore is out of the women’s control. That kind of motherhood is not easy to be pursued by today’s women who seek self-realization through careers. Against this backdrop, women consider it rational to hold off making decisions on childbirth or opt not to have children. On the other hand, the motherhood that women experience in the workplace brings about “penalties.” The penalties may include fewer opportunities for social recognition as a career person, a strained relationship with colleagues caused by her using the workplace’s work-life balance policies, doubts about her working ability and concentration, and a higher risk of career interruption. For women who cannot find systematic alternatives to avoid or minimize penalties, being child-free is the best and most sensible way they can take as individuals. The article proposes a few ideas regarding the government’s low birth rate policies based on the analysis results.
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KEYWORD
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low birth rate, employed child-free women, opting not to have children, motherhood penalty, work-life balance policy, risk of career interruption
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