KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

A Study on the utilization of childcare leave of public servants in local governments

 

Meekyung Moon
Boktae Kim
Haeyoung Kim

 

With an aim to contribute to the promotion of women’s economic participation through support for work-family balance, which is a state agenda of the incumbent government, this research attempts to examine the impact of the use of childcare leave on human resource management in local autonomous bodies in order to suggest improvement measures.

Recognizing the importance of female resources, the government has included “equal opportunities and fair treatment for women in public positions” (98) and “expansion of women’s economic participation and gender equality” (65) in its 140 state agendas. In addition, the government aims to cultivate 100,000 talented female human resources, to increase the proportion of female public servants to 15% by 2017 (9.3% by 2012), and to produce qualified female leaders in each area (30,000 persons by 2017) by setting a target number for each public organization and establishing a female leadership academy.

To achieve these goals, policies to support work-family balance are needed in order to prevent women’s career disruption. At the center of these policies are childcare leave and flexible work arrangement systems. These two systems are essential in response both to projected labor shortages due to the aging of societyand to shifting values related to work.

In reality, however, workers have yet to be reassured that they can use the childcare leave without having to bear any disadvantages.

This research examines the use of childcare leave among public servants in local autonomous bodies and its impact on their promotion and work placement The improvement measures suggested based on the findings of this study are expected to promote career advancement and work-family balance on the part of individual public employees and the maximization of the use of human resources on the part of the organization through gender-sensitive human resource management.