Creating Their Own Work-Life Balance: Experiences of Highly Educated and Married Female Employees in South Korea

Abstract

South Korea is known as a country with a large number of highly educated women; however, it is also known as a country with the lowest employment rate of female college graduates among the OECD nations. Underlying the low employment of women, there is a phenomenon of a high percentage of Korean women whose careers have been interrupted due to marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth. As a result of unfavorable conditions at both work and home, the number of single women has increased in Korea, and married female professionals also hesitate to have children. This is evidenced by the low birth rate in Korea. The critical need for quality of work life and work-life balance is prominent in Korea. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of the highly educated and married female Korean employees regarding work-life balance. Phenomenological interviews with sixteen participants revealed valuable insights into how to promote the quality of the career women's lives in the Korean context.