Among dual-income couples in their 20-40s, the wives spend more than twice the time than their husband in taking care of children, a government study said Tuesday.
The Health and Welfare Ministry unveiled results of a survey conducted from Dec. 7-20 on 2,000 South Koreans aged 19 or more about low fertility and aging trends.
According to its outcome, the mothers of elementary school-level or younger children spend an average of 2.48 hours a day on weekdays and 4.21 hours on weekends taking care of their kids, about 2.6 times and twice more than the fathers, respectively.
Some 84 percent of career women and 80 percent of men said that they worried about the reactions of their bosses and colleagues when they considered maternity leave. Similar figures were shown in terms of a child care leave.
Around half of the respondents said they felt the need for the government to provide further economic incentives in order to boost birthrates.
(
khnews@heraldcorp.com)
