Korean Times: Single women to Blame for Low Birthrate
By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
The surging numbers of single women are the key factor behind the country's low birthrate, research showed Sunday.
The Statistical Research Institute reported that one out of five females aged between 30 and 34 were single as of 2005, compared with one in 10 in 2000.
Korea suffers the lowest birthrate ― 1.19 children per woman ― among OECD member countries. It suggested that more families are settling for only one child, and preference for boys also seems to be decreasing.
Before, many families with three children had two daughters first and later a son in the wake of pressure for a male heir to continue the family name. Among mothers with more than two children and aged between 45 and 49, 48.9 percent had a son after having two daughters.
In the age bracket between 25 and 29, however, only 21.6 percent did so. The birthrate was especially low in mega cities and metropolitan areas. Gangnam in southern Seoul and a central district in Busan had the lowest in the country.
The ratio of females remaining single was high in these regions, and married women there had only a small number of children.
The Korean War Baby notes that Korean Single women are getting blamed for staying single too long, then not having enough children. Now they are blamed for the Low Birthrate. The Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs has for several years reversed Slogans to push for 2 children rather than only 1 because of the fear that population is dropping and the ‘over 60’ age group is increasing. I guess the PPFK Planned Population Federation of Korea has done TOO WELL in controlling the Population!
Diverse Women for Diverse Society Looks at how women have seen changes. “It's interesting to see women taking more diverse roles in the largely uniform society that Korea is. The low birth rate may mean something. The National Statistical Office recently announced that the birthrate in Korea stood at 1.26 last year, a large decrease from the 1970s when the birthrate stood at 4.53. Perhaps this is in line with the increase in alpha girls or that we are seeing more ``worldy women,'' as Mark Penn identified in his book ``Micro Trends.''
Single Women Numbers Increase The population of unmarried women in their 20s and 30s has grown rapidly in Korea, a government report showed Sunday, underpinning concerns that delaying marriage is contributing to the country's declining birthrate.
The Korean War Baby comments:
Women are finally getting more freedom, well, surprise, shock and awe! They don’t want to get married too soon; they don’t want to ‘work on the farm’ so Korean farmers have to ‘import foreign wives’; they don’t want more than one child.
Don’t be surprised if the government comes up with ‘only two Abortions per single women’ law, or ‘forced marriages’. SAY! Here’s a good idea, make dead-beat “bio-Dads” take responsibility and Marry when they ‘knock up a young woman’. They could also make revisions to loosen up the Adultery laws, just say yes to give birth.
Where is the Balance? What’s the answer? As you can see sometimes solutions produce new problems. The campaign to “Walk RIGHT” is now being launched in all schools, with the reasons given for the changes. The KWB sees very few actually following, or even aware of the CHANGE. In the mean time Korean Society is caught up in a dilemma, hopefully the Balance will be found…stay tuned.
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