Becky Hunter-Kelm is grateful for the Flexible Working Bill, passed earlier this month, which will help working mothers in the UK hugely. She takes a look at how without flexible working conditions, women in South Korea are choosing not to have babies.
South Korea currently has the lowest birth rate in the world. For a population to maintain stability, every woman must have 2.1 children. But women in South Korea are increasingly choosing a child-free life, bringing the country’s already plummeting birth rates to a new low at 0.72%.
The choice of many women to not have children is having such an impact on South Korea’s future that the government has declared a ‘national emergency’. If this trend continues, in 50 years the workforce will be halved, and the nation’s financial state will be in serious decline.
In the UK we can identify with our sisters in South Korea because today the birth rate in Britain is also at an all-time low.
In the UK we can identify with our sisters in South Korea because today the birth rate in Britain is also at an all-time low. With parents paying an extra £2k per year on childcare, the housing prices peaking, and plateaued salaries, having children is increasingly being seen as a luxury. (The Guardian).
I’ve been watching the amazing efforts of Anna Whitehouse aka @mother_pukka on Instagram. She has been campaigning for the Flexible Working Bill to become the law for eight years. On the 6th April it was passed which is great news for parents and care-givers in the U.K!
The Bill allows employees to make flexible working requests from day one of their employment. Flexible working under this legislation encompasses a variety of arrangements such as part-time, term-time, flexitime, compressed hours, and varied working locations.
‘I love my job, it brings me so much fulfilment,” she says. “But working in Korea is hard, you’re stuck in a perpetual cycle of work.’
Most jobs in South Korea are from 9-6 pm (sometimes with overtime on top of that). Yejin told the BBC that there’s no time for anything else. Most women come home, clean up their apartment and go to bed.
‘I love my job, it brings me so much fulfilment,” she says. “But working in Korea is hard, you’re stuck in a perpetual cycle of work.’
As a mum of three who works remotely I can’t even imagine adding childcare on top of a daily schedule like this.
Read more on working mothers
Motherhood is a wonderful part of God’s plan for women (and not just to boost the population rate or to ensure economic stability!). However neither work nor motherhood should be our first calling, but both are an enjoyable and fulfilling result of obeying God’s most important calling on our lives - to love him: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.’ (Matthew 22:37-38).
Women in the UK are celebrating our new Flexible Working Bill, so let’s pray for our sisters in other countries who don’t have the same rights. Let’s pray for policy makers to see the need for better maternity rights and flexible working. Let’s pray for a shift in values and an appreciation for work-life balance so women in South Korea especially can be free to live out God’s plan for their lives, whether at work, as a mother, or both.
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