Recently, South Korea's official statistics show that in the whole of 2023, the number of births in South Korea will be only about 2350,000, down 11% from the previous year and hitting a record low.
According to simple estimates, South Korea's birth rate has dropped to 44 It is already significantly lower than Japan, which is known for its "population crisis", and ranks first among major countries in the world.
What does this mean?
In a country that maintains a birth rate at this level, with only 70 for every 200 people in one generation, the next generation will have only 70 population declines, outpacing the impact of the Black Death on Europe in the 14th century.
Why don't Koreans give birth?What is the real reason behind it?
In South Korea, the culture of gender opposition presents a grim situation.
More and more South Korean women are choosing to live single, a phenomenon that is partly reflected in the feminist movement known as the "4Bs" or "4 Nos."
The movement's followers preach the "four no's":
Don't date, don't ** (with men), don't get married, don't have children.
The "b" here stands for "bi-" in Korean, which means "no".
This trend is an extreme manifestation of Koreans staying away from marriage. It is estimated that more than a quarter of today's South Korean men and women in their thirties will probably never get married.
At the same time, more and more people are choosing not to have children. In 1960, the average fertility rate for women in South Korea was six children, but in 2022 this figure fell to an average of 078 pcs.
In Seoul, the figure dropped to 059。If this downward trend continues, one out of every two women in Seoul will never become a mother.
In response to the severe decline in fertility, South Korea** has taken a series of measures.
* Not only has maternity leave been expanded, but there are also increasing bonuses for families who give birth, and housing subsidies are especially provided for newlyweds in Seoul. The mayor of Seoul has proposed easing visa restrictions to bring in more foreign cheap nannies, while some rural areas** are funding local single men to find foreign brides.
In 2016, a "fertility map" was posted online showing the number of women of childbearing age in each region, an attempt to encourage more childbearing, but it sparked a backlash from feminists.
They held it up and wrote"My womb is not a state public good".with"Against baby vending machines".banners, expressing their dissatisfaction.
Although more than $150 billion has been invested in this area, these efforts do not appear to have paid off.
In many subway stations in South Korea, there are pink seats designed for pregnant women. However, when you travel around Seoul, you will find that these seats are often occupied by tired seniors, and it is difficult to find a seat to rest.
In South Korea, the reasons why people decide not to have children are numerous and complex.
Especially in the densely populated Greater Seoul area, the challenges faced by residents are particularly significant.
Housing is expensive, accounting for about half of the country's population of 52 million, education is highly competitive, raising children is expensive, and workplace regulations are often detrimental to family life, especially for housewives.
Despite social progress, women still have to take on most of the household chores and child-rearing responsibilities.
Behind these superficial factors, however, lies a deeper problem: the deterioration of the relationship between women and men, which is often referred to as the "gender war" in South Korea.
"The central problem at the moment is that more and more women are realizing that they don't actually have to follow the traditional pattern of life anymore," said one social commentator. They can choose another path. ”
South Korea's remarkable decline in fertility is also rooted in the rapid transformation of its society.
Since the end of the Korean War, South Korea has undergone drastic changes. Many moved from the countryside to the city, looking for work in factories, as part of a state-led economic transformation known as the "Miracle of the Han River."
With high school and college enrollment soaring, South Korean society has undergone a profound educational revolution.
The pro-democracy movement of 1987 ended military rule and brought new freedoms.
The financial crisis of 1997 led to corporate restructuring and made South Korea's corporate culture unstable, similar to what happened in the United States and Japan.
However, the rate of change in gender roles has lagged far behind rapid economic and political developments.
Jang Kyung-sub, a sociologist at Seoul National University, proposed"Compressed modernity".This concept is used to describe the rapid transformation of South Korea's economy and the slow and uneven evolution of social institutions, especially family roles.
Compressed modernity captures a key feature of East Asian development. "Compressed modernity" is "a state of civilization in which economic, political, social and cultural changes occur in an extremely condensed manner in time and space, in which historical, social and socially different factors occur in extremely condensed ways").
Although more and more women are pursuing higher education and surpassed men in 2015, there is a general social perception that they will drop out of the workforce after marriage or childbearing.
The family remains the core unit of society, and family responsibilities are almost entirely borne by women, both in the old and new order.
Women's aspirations are expanding, but the roles of wives and mothers have not changed substantially in Korean society. As a result, gender resentment is on the rise.
Korean men are not having a good time either.
Compulsory military service for men provides women with a short-term advantage in the labor market, i.e. 18 months to two years of early employment.
Korean women demand independence in the economy, work, and family on the one hand, and on the other hand, they see men as the main breadwinners of the family.
Statistics show that men work an average of 5 hours more per week than women, at 406 hours and 352 hours.
In the financial arrangements of the marriage,It is widely expected that men or their families will buy housing for newlywedsThis expectation does not change depending on whether or not both parties have a stable business.
In fact, one study found that parental income was a key factor in men's likelihood of getting married, but had no significant effect on women's marriage rates.
In 2020, a survey of 1,000 South Koreans in their 30s revealed different attitudes towards marriage: more than half of men who were reluctant to marry cited economic problems as a major obstacle;Among women, a quarter said they "enjoyed being single," while another quarter cited "patriarchal culture and gender inequality" as their main reason against marriage.
In June of this year, South Korean society was shocked by two tragic cases of infanticide.
On the outskirts of Seoul, a mother in her 30s was found hiding the bodies of two newborn babies allegedly born in 2018 and 2019 in her freezer.
She admitted to ** that she couldn't afford to raise more children because she already had three older children to take care of.
Soon after, in Gyeongsang Province, another young couple was arrested on suspicion of killing their five-day-old son and throwing the body into the river.
These incidents not only sent shockwaves across the country, but also underscored South Korea's serious approach to infanticide and neonatal abandonment.
In response to such crimes, legislators have recently adopted harsher penalties, including increased minimum prison sentences and fines, and even the death penalty in extreme cases.
However, experts are concerned that simply strengthening punishment will not get to the root of the problem.
Cho Hee-kyung, a law professor at Hongik University in Seoul and a columnist for the Korea Herald, said the new measures may not stop people in desperate situations from committing such crimes.
"No one would choose to abandon a baby because the punishment was only two years, and likewise an aggravated punishment will not stop them from doing so. ”
Professor Zhao stressed that what is really needed is increased support for single mothers, teenage mothers and other pregnant women at risk, as well as better access to baby boxes as a last resort where parents in crisis can safely abandon their newborns.
South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare recently revealed a data of concern:
Between 2015 and 2022, about 6,000 babies (including nearly 4,000 born to foreign mothers) had birth records in hospitals, but were never registered in **.
This discovery became known as the phenomenon of "ghost babies".
Of the 2,123 unregistered Korean babies, only 1,025 have been confirmed alive, more than 800 babies are missing, at least 249 have died, and many more are under investigation.
In response to this problem, the National Assembly of South Korea passed an important bill. The bill aims to close existing data collection gaps by requiring health care providers, rather than parents, to report births to local** within 14 days of birth.
In addition, in order to more effectively address violence against newborns, legislators passed amendments to the Criminal Code this week. The new law raises the maximum penalty for infanticide from 10 years in prison to the same penalty as the ** crime: life imprisonment or the death penalty.
At the same time, the penalty for abandonment of a child has been increased from a maximum fine of $2,340 or imprisonment for two years to a fine of $3,900 or imprisonment for three years.
Why would you rather "infanticide" than abortion?This may be related to the lack of safe and legal abortion services in South Korea.
South Korea has been gradually legalizing abortion since the beginning of 2021. However, despite the fact that abortion is legally recognized, legislators have yet to develop clear legal norms to define the relevant procedures, which has led to an ambiguous line between the legality and illegality of abortion in practice.
Many doctors are reluctant to provide abortion services for fear of legal action, and this uncertain legal environment casts abortion services in the shadows.
Under the Maternal and Child Health Act, adopted in 1973, abortion is permitted in five cases: the pregnant woman or her partner has a hereditary disease or disability;Pregnancy is due to**or**;Continuing to get pregnant poses a serious risk to the health of the pregnant woman. Other than that, the situation remains in a legal gray area.
People seeking abortions often lack official health care provider information, often rely on advice on the internet, or try to self-abort despite the potential health risks. As of now, no abortion drugs have been approved for use in South Korea.
A 2021 survey of 8,500 women found that nearly 70% of women seeking an abortion said the reason the child could interfere with their work or education, or that they lacked the financial means to raise the child.
The complexity of this abortion issue is closely linked to South Korea's ongoing demographic problem.
South Korea has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, with an elderly population expected to account for one-fifth of the total population by 2025.
While the demand for social services continues to grow, the continued reduction of the labor force will put more pressure on the country.
South Korea** has encouraged childbearing through various programs, and has even considered exempting families with three or more children from compulsory military service.
Kim Young-mi, a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh who teaches Korean culture and politics, said
"We can't just throw stones at mothers or families involved, there should be a supportive environment. ”
Summary:
Globally, few wealthy countries have succeeded in reversing declining fertility rates.
The material and social challenges facing South Korea are intertwined.
If unemployed men can be provided with basic security such as housing, it may reduce their misogyny towards women and anger against society. Similarly, if companies treat female employees fairly and offer equal pay and promotion opportunities with men, this may weaken feminist influence.
A safer and fairer society may make it easier for people to plan for their futures, including marriage and children.
A Korean lady who calls herself a believer in "4B" even half-jokingly said:The solution to South Korea's problem is to make the whole country disappear.
She mentions that Thanos, the villain of The Avengers, wiped out half of the planet's population by snapping his fingers, but in her opinion, Thanos did nothing wrong.
Behind this seemingly joking remark, there is a sense of nihilistic despair.
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