In a knowledge-based society, women’s advancement in society is necessary for both the development of society and the individual. Korea in the 21st century has entered a low fertility and aging society along with the development of the knowledge inf...
In a knowledge-based society, women’s advancement in society is necessary for both the development of society and the individual. Korea in the 21st century has entered a low fertility and aging society along with the development of the knowledge information industry, and to cope with such social changes, the utilization of highly-educated women human resources of has become a significant issue that should be solved at the national level. The women’s labor market in Korea is the M-shaped structure in that women in their 30s are sacked from the labor market and the women in their 40s reenter, because of marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing. In particular, there is the L-shaped structure in that highly-educated career-interrupted women do not reenter the labor market after a single withdrawal, and it is so relevant to low labor force participation of Korean women.
This study reviewed the factors influencing reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women and examined through an empirical analysis, focusing on the labor supply of married women who experience the career interruption because of marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, childcare and housework among many issues about the labor supply of women. Through this, it is expected to understand widely factors influencing reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women and to get implications.
For the analysis, the 1st and 4th open data of Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families (KLoWF) of Korean Women’s Development Institute were classified by the operational definitions and were analyzed. As a result, it was possible to find factors statistically significantly influencing reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women.
First, as key factors influencing reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women, the existence or nonexistence of preschool children, the existence or nonexistence of an agent for childcare, the husbands’ satisfaction about the division of household and childcare work, the husbands’ support for wives’ employment, the existence or nonexistence of husbands’ job and the gross household income excepting women earned income appear significant. The detailed results are as below.
The nonexistence of preschool children and the existence of an agent for childcare positively influence reentry into the labor market. It shows that the childcare policy is an important issue in reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women. Also, as the husbands’ high satisfaction about the division of household and childcare work and the husbands’ high support for wives’ employment positively influence reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women, husbands’ understanding and emotional support for women’s social activities are necessary parts for reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women. Finally, the existence of the husbands’ job and the low gross household income positively influence reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women.
It is expected that many influence factors that stated in this paper give a variety of implications to policy-making for reentry into the labor market of highly-educated career-interrupted women.