[From the current affairs planning window, 'Mother's Doenjang Soup_Diary of the Liberation of Housework'] Clean clothes, an organized house, warm meals. Our daily lives can continue because there is someone's housework to take care of children and elderly parents. Official government statistics show that women do more of this work in Korean society than men. But do these statistics really reflect the reality of housework? [Interview] Jeong Min-woo and Lee Ha-eun/Dual-income couple I was born in 1986. My father is Jeong Si-on. My name is Jeong Min-woo and I currently work in the human resources department of a foreign company. (Are you a dual-income couple?) Yes. We are a dual-income couple. At first, we weren't used to it, so we had to speak up about things like properly dividing up roles. (You didn't fight?) It felt like we fought a little when we spoke up. [Interview] Jeong Min-woo / Husband (What ratio do you think you share housework with your wife?) My husband does about 6 to 4. [Interview] Lee Ha-eun / Wife: Is it 4 to 6? I think it’s 6 to 4. On the contrary. In fact, after giving birth, my physical strength has decreased a lot, so it’s hard for me to play with her physically. I have to let her walk and play with her, and my husband does a lot of that, so I think it’s 6 to 4. It’s much easier than before. I measured the housework hours of this couple according to the Statistics Korea method. The couple on childcare leave each spends about 7 hours on housework. It’s typical of the current generation. However, if you look closely, you can see some differences. There are things that the husband doesn’t do at all, but the wife does. The wife, Lee Ha-eun, is in charge of all the ‘planning’ related work, such as planning, conceptualizing, and gathering information about the overall family life. [Interview] Lee Ha-eun/Wife I have to pay more attention and manage things, so when I plan, I think about what I need. For example, I have run out of nutritional supplements, diapers, and food supplies. I keep checking these things so that I don’t forget them, so I think it’s full. I actually listened to the advice of my parents and made a reservation for daycare after giving birth. I waited. But there were no seats. I have a set return to work. I have to send my child to the 0-year-old class, but there aren’t many seats, so I thought, what should I do? My husband said, “Can’t we wait a little bit?” I didn’t feel good about that. I didn’t want to create such an uncertain situation where I didn’t know if there would be a seat in the middle, so I asked around. Kwon Young-eun, who is raising a child who is about to enter elementary school, also has to take care of her child in between work. She wonders what kind of preparations she needs to make when she goes to school, who will take care of her child who will come home much earlier than when she was in kindergarten, and what she will eat for dinner tonight and for breakfast tomorrow… Planning and ideas related to her child and housework never leave her mind. [Interview] Kwon Young-eun/Working Mom Clothes hanging on hangers. These need to be changed according to the child’s growth stage and season. Shoes and underwear are the same. My husband doesn’t step forward and take care of those things. The current hustle and bustle related to the gap in childcare for elementary school children is also part of planning labor. If we used to worry about what to do with the academy or how to ask other caregivers to take care of the child, now we worry about how the policy of the childcare school will be applied to our children. That worry has also become the mothers’ job. Should I reduce my work or quit? I worry about that seriously. My husband doesn’t. What should I do? He does this. What should I do? It’s someone else’s problem. [Interview] Kim Young-ran/Research Fellow, Korean Women’s Development Institute When we run and maintain a company, the planning is done by the executives and managers of the core departments. Likewise, in terms of housework, in the areas of eating, living, clothing, childcare, family interaction events, etc., planning when and how to schedule and how to do it in order to maintain this is actually a very important task in maintaining family life. Housekeeping services are (nowadays) outsourced and used a lot, but planning housework is an important task that cannot be left to housekeepers. In general, women take on this part at home, and as a result, women bear a considerable burden as the responsible role of managing the family. However, this planning work is completely omitted from the housework hours measured by the government. This is because they only calculate how much time was spent on actual 'action' during the 24 hours of the day. In other words, 'planning work' time, which is collecting and preparing information for children and family, is clearly important time spent for the family, but it is ultimately omitted because it is not expressed as 'action'. [Recording] Jeong Min-woo/ Dual-income husband I think (planning work) is actually the most important work. I think it takes a lot of effort and time to constantly think about what is the best choice for us, even though it doesn’t show up in the table, by constantly thinking about the first, second, and third options in simulation. There are also limitations to the survey method. Since the survey is conducted on a daily basis based on the actions taken in the past few days, housework that is not done every day but several times a year, such as holidays, kimchi-making, and organizing the closet according to the season, is not well measured. Sisa Planning Window, with the advice of the Women’s Policy Institute, commissioned a public opinion research institute to conduct a survey on the state of housework among 1,000 adult men and women. In order to accurately reflect the work that actually takes place in households, we added planning work, relational work, and family-related travel time to the housework items surveyed by Statistics Korea. We also conducted a detailed survey on how often and for how long each item was done. What were the results? First, housework time. Women spent three times more time on it than men. What is noteworthy is the gender gap in planning work. The gender gap in the items surveyed by Statistics Korea, namely, execution labor, was 2.9 times, but in planning labor, which Statistics Korea does not measure, the gender gap widened further to 3.4 times. If we exclude planning labor, which is the core of housework, from the survey, it shows that it is impossible to accurately measure the actual situation. [Interview] Kim Young-ran/Research Fellow, Korean Women’s Development Institute Until now, the measurement of housework time has been centered on actual behavior or has not covered all areas of housework actually performed, so I think it has been a partial survey. Unless we accurately grasp the reality of how much burden women actually bear for family management and housework and implement policies accordingly, the trend of the 2030 generation avoiding marriage or family will likely continue. Interview reporter: Kim Ji-seon Camera reporter: Yoon Hee-jin, Cho Seung-yeon Video editing: Ahn Young-ah Data research: Lee Ran-hee, Hwang Hyeon-bi Assistant director: Choi Myeong-ho Related broadcast date and time: March 5, 2024 (Tuesday) 10 p.m. KBS 1TV/YouTube #Housework #Gendergap #Planninglabor #StatisticsKorea #Childcare #Liberationdiary #Dualincome #Women #Soybeanpastesoup #InternationalWomensDay 'Current Affairs Planning Window' homepage https://news.kbs.co.kr/vod/program.do... YouTube / @kbssisa Facebook / changkbs WAVVE Search for 'Current Affairs Planning Window'