Korean Women Entrepreneurs Face Care Burden, Says Survey

For women entrepreneurs in South Korea, caregiving responsibilities are increasingly emerging as a business continuity issue rather than a personal work-life balance challenge. According to a new survey, 88.5% of women entrepreneurs believe that they are burdened with managing their businesses along with pregnancy, child birth, child care and family care responsibilities and the suffering are felt more in the smaller businesses.

The report titled “Status of Work-Life Balance among Women Entrepreneurs and Policy Implications”, by the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Support Center's Women's Economic Research Institute. A survey of 645 women-owned corporations that have official women owned business certification was used to compile the report. The survey took place last month from the 8th to 17th.

The results indicate that if the woman entrepreneur is compelled to leave the business to take care of the child, the impact can become apparent right away in the business. This is a special challenge for smaller businesses that may not have the manpower and monetary resources to cover unexpected absences.

For one-person corporations 91.7% of respondents experienced work-life balance issues. Likewise, 91.4% of businesses that received less than 300 million won said caregiving responsibilities impacted their businesses operations.

Social expectations on caregiving emerged as a key factor of imbalance in the survey. 65.3% of the respondents agreed that the social norm of providing primary care for family care by women makes it harder for women entrepreneurs to manage work with family. A further 54.6% cited childcare responsibilities as a significant factor impacting on business continuity and stability.

Key Highlights:

• Caregiving responsibilities are creating direct risks for business continuity
• One-person corporations face the highest pressure from unexpected caregiving gaps
• Women entrepreneurs strongly support targeted policies addressing different caregiving needs

The research also explored the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in various stages of care giving. A total of 24.3% of respondents cited business disruptions as a result of the absence of the head as a major concern during pregnancy and childbirth. The most popular policy response was “short-term assistant staffing to respond to management gaps”, with 23.6% of respondents choosing this.

The primary challenge faced in childcare was when a child was ill and required care or when daycare centres and schools closed unexpectedly. This was mentioned by 36.5% of the respondents. At the same time, 19.3% stated that subsidies for childcare and caregiving services would be the most valuable support.

There was also a lot of operational pressure as a result of family caregiving. The greatest challenge for 38.0% of the respondents was to accompany family members for hospital consultations, medical tests, hospitalisation and rehabilitation. Another 26.0% indicated that support workers who could go with family members to medical appointments would be most useful to them.

Need for targeted intervention was overwhelming; 97.1% of women entrepreneurs felt policies specially designed to address women's concerns with regards to work-life balance are required.

The Women's Economic Research Institute suggested setting up long-term support systems that can be sustained, creating support for companies of various sizes and business types, and supporting in different ways depending on the circumstances of care. The results highlight a wider issue: When women entrepreneurs have access to a reliable caregiver, they can make or break their business operations during critical times of responsibility for others.