Beyond the Career-Family Dichotomy: Young Korean Married Women’s Rejection of Motherhood

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8: Family Attitudes and Aspirations

Abstract

Drawing on a larger qualitative study of 33 married South Korean women, this article focuses on younger cohorts who remain childless, examining how they construct and articulate their identities, perspectives, and life aspirations amid Korea’s ultra-low birth rate. Rather than simply asking why they forgo parenthood, we investigate how they interpret and justify their decision. While their “vocabularies of motive” echo those of voluntarily childless women in the West, they diverge from Blair-Loy’s (2001) schemas of work or family devotion. Instead, these women—well-resourced and in their early 30s—express highly individualistic, self-centered and often apathetic orientations toward life, which we term a devotion-free schema. Their narratives suggest that, for younger Korean women, regardless of marriage status, childlessness may serve as a defensive strategy in a post-growth, hyper-competitive society characterized by enduring gender inequalities, where marriage and parenthood are no longer strongly assumed.

Author

• Juyeon Park, Yonsei University