KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Abstract

 

Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families : the 2020 Annual Report

 

Jae-seon Joo

Dong-sun Lee

Chi-seon Song

Geon-pyo Park

Jin-sook Lee

Song-yi Park

Yeon-gyu Lim

Jun-young Yang

Chang-kyoon Son

 

Policies on women have diverse and complicated components. In the case of polices on the promotion of women’s economic activity, an analysis should be conducted not only for factors of the labor market but also for family structure, decision-making in the family, family relations, and social and cultural factors. As such, a database for policies on women should be established to encompass individual women’s private sphere as well as their socio-structural, perceptual and cultural spheres.

 

In this background, the Korean Women's Development Institute began to conduct research in 2006 in order to establish a longitudinal database that keeps track of various changes in women’s lives. By performing its first-wave Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families (KLoWF) in 2007, the KWDI established a panel for the survey, and completed its seventh-wave survey in 2018. As of 2020, its eighth-wave survey is underway.

 

Even prior to the KLoWF, there had been data from panel surveys of women’s lives in Korea. However, most of these surveys had limitations in their design that made it difficult to identify changes in family structure and women’s issues in an integrated manner. Moreover, it was pointed out that the survey data did not have enough female samples to conduct an in-depth analysis of changes in family structure, including women’s jobs and lives. As such, the KLoWF is designed to enable an integrated analysis of women’s changes by life cycle and changes in family structure. The KLoWF has also overcome the limitations of existing data by establishing a large-scale panel comprising approximately 10,000 women.

 

Based on the results of the first- to seventh-wave surveys, the ongoing eighth-wave KLoWF of 2020 analyzed changes in major characteristics of women. For the 2020 KLoWF, we conducted a time-series analysis of various changes in women’s lives as well as a longitudinal survey to track changes in their jobs. As an in-depth study, we conducted an “analysis of employed, married women’s decisions on the allocation of time” and an “exploratory study on the differences in relations according to relative income among dual-income couples, focusing on decision-making, sharing domestic work, and emotional support.”

 

Through these analyses, we examined characteristics of working women’s family lives according to their time allocation and the differences in relative income among the couples, and developed policy implications.

 

In addition, we disclosed the first- to seventh-wave data to the general public through customized data services for user convenience, held academic conferences to promote diverse studies on women, and presented their implications for policies on women.

 

 

Research areas: Panel, Family and Care, Work-life balance, Gender equality culture and awareness, Labor and Employment, Low birth and Aging

 

Keywords: Family and Care, Work-life balance, Gender equality culture and awareness, Labor and Employment, Low birth and Aging