Maternity protection and work-family balance support policies: A Korean case study

Abstract

More Korean women participate in economic and social activities, but also more of them decide not to work or to delay childbirth. This study used data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families (KLoWF) between 2010 and 2018 to examine changes in awareness of the policies on maternity protection and work-family balance support, and the factors behind them. We selected 972 female workers (between 15 and 49 years of age) for this analysis. Using Growth Mixture Modelling (GMM), we identified three types of changes in awareness. Having lower education levels and fewer children, working in production rather than professional management, and having a smaller workforce increase the likelihood of being in the ‘reducing’ type of awareness change. These findings suggest the need for a review of current maternity protection and work-family balance support systems, and guide the future directions for improvement which we identify at the end of the article.