Record Rise in Working Mothers in South Korea, Yet Many Face Decade Long Career Breaks

Record highs meet long absences for mothers

South Korea has more working mothers than ever, yet many who pause their careers stay out of the workforce for years. Government data for the first half of 2025 shows that 64.3 percent of married women aged 15 to 54 who live with children under 18 were employed. That share rose 1.9 percentage points from a year earlier and has climbed 8.8 percentage points over five years. The overall employment rate for married women, regardless of whether they have children, reached 67.3 percent, a record high.

Behind those gains, a stubborn reality remains. Among married women who left work due to marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, or childcare, 42.1 percent had been out for at least 10 years. Another 22.3 percent had been away for five to ten years. The number of women classified as having experienced a career break stood at about 1.11 million in the first half of the year, equal to 14.9 percent of all married women aged 15 to 54. That share is the lowest since 2014, but the length of absence is still long for a large group of mothers.

The pattern falls most heavily on those in their early 30s. In that age band, 21.8 percent of married women were classified as having left work for family reasons. Long breaks at that stage can slow skill development, reduce professional networks, and make later reentry more difficult, which in turn affects lifetime earnings and leadership prospects.

Who is working today, and where

Most working mothers are in stable wage jobs. Eighty three percent of employed mothers are wage workers, and four in five of them, 80.6 percent, hold regular full time positions. That structure reflects a labor market where standard full time employment is the norm and part time professional roles are less common, which can make balancing work and caregiving a challenge when children are young.

Occupationally, 35.1 percent of working mothers are managers, professionals, or in related roles. Employment rates vary sharply by the age of children at home. Mothers of teenagers have a 70.4 percent employment rate, while mothers of preschoolers have a 57.7 percent rate, a gap that tracks the higher caregiving demands and childcare costs when children are under school age. Career interruptions also rise with family size. Among married women with children, the share who had experienced a career break was 20.2 percent for those with one child, 22.3 percent for those with two children, and 23.9 percent for those with three or more children.

Why career interruptions last so long

Care responsibilities are the most frequently cited driver of exits from work. In the latest data, 44.3 percent of women who left their jobs pointed to childcare as the main reason, followed by marriage at 24.2 percent and pregnancy or childbirth at 22.1 percent. These choices play out within a system shaped by long working hours, rigid expectations around attendance, and after work socializing. Leaving early for pickup or asking for flexible hours can still carry stigma in some workplaces, and that discourages both mothers and fathers from using leave and flexible options.

Childcare remains a pressure point. Access to affordable, high quality care for infants and toddlers is still limited in many communities, and coverage for after school hours is often patchy. When grandparents are unavailable and private care is expensive, many mothers see no practical option but to pause their careers, particularly around the birth of a first or second child.

The result is a well documented motherhood penalty. Mothers face higher risks of stalled advancement and lower pay compared with men and with women without children. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has repeatedly found that South Korea has the widest gender pay gap among its member countries. Cultural expectations around the ideal worker and the primary caregiver, combined with seniority based promotion paths, make career continuity hard to sustain in the years immediately following childbirth.

The penalty is visible in the shape of women’s employment over the life cycle, long known as the M curve. Employment rises in the 20s, falls in the 30s during childbearing and intensive caregiving, then rises again in the 40s and 50s. Recent data suggests that this curve is flattening, but the long absence endured by many mothers shows that progress is uneven and still fragile.

The 30s turning point and the fading M curve

There are signs of a shift in the prime childbearing decade. The employment rate for women in their 30s reached an average of 73 percent this year based on monthly data, a new high for the fourth consecutive year. That level now exceeds the rate for women in their 40s, a reversal of the long standing pattern at the peak of the M curve. More women are staying employed through pregnancy and early caregiving, then maintaining attachment to the labor market as children enter school.

Several forces are behind the change. Social attitudes are shifting toward acceptance of dual income families, and more fathers are participating in childcare and household duties. Growth in sectors with higher female participation, including health and social welfare services, daycare, and education, has created more jobs with predictable schedules. Those sectors were less exposed to recent slowdowns in manufacturing and construction, which helped sustain women’s employment even as male employment has softened in some age groups.

Employment gains in a woman’s 30s matter for long term outcomes. Experience accumulated in that decade feeds into managerial promotions in the 40s and 50s and improves the pipeline into leadership. The recent rise in women reaching mid level roles suggests that progress on retention can improve representation higher up the ladder over time.

Money pressures keep mothers in the labor force

Rising living costs have pushed more families to rely on two paychecks. Survey data indicates that household income grew by about 430,000 won from 2022 to 2023, while spending rose by roughly 570,000 won over the same period. The squeeze from housing, education, and everyday expenses has encouraged mothers who might once have resigned to stay employed, often by using parental leave or negotiating adjustments to schedules instead of exiting entirely.

Many married women are employed in health and social welfare services, followed by education and retail. These fields tend to have lower entry barriers and steady demand, especially given rapid population aging and continued demand for care services. That mix has supported rising employment rates among married women even as the total number of mothers has fallen with lower births.

Flexible work arrangements introduced during the pandemic made it easier for some mothers to maintain jobs or return. Remote work eliminated commuting time, and flexible start and end times helped with school drop off and pickup. Retention has improved when managers and teams normalize such arrangements and focus on performance rather than presence.

Returning after long breaks is possible, yet demanding

Women who left work for several years face a different set of hurdles when they try to reenter. Technology and practices change, networks fade, and job postings often frame career gaps as red flags. Returnship programs that offer structured internships, mentoring, and reskilling can bridge that gap. One example from the technology sector involved a woman who stepped away for 11 years to raise a child and used a six month internship for career returners to refresh her skills. She worked through company training and self study, then converted to a full time senior role within three months. Stories like this show that reentry is achievable when employers create on ramps and candidates receive tailored support.

In South Korea, more firms in finance and technology are piloting similar approaches. Programs that pair temporary roles with guaranteed consideration for permanent positions, plus access to upskilling in areas like cloud computing or data analysis, have helped candidates overcome the perceived risk of a hiring gap. The most successful efforts train managers to evaluate skills and potential, not only recent tenure, and to welcome non linear career paths.

What companies and the state are trying

Large employers in South Korea have started to expand family support with the aim of retaining talent. Several major banks now offer extended childcare leave with job protection. KB Kookmin Bank allows up to three years of unpaid leave for childcare, and Woori Bank provides two and a half years. Citibank Korea has introduced paid paternity leave and flexible work options, and Standard Chartered provides 20 weeks of paid parental leave globally for all employees. Some firms offer cash incentives around childbirth. Shinhan Bank has offered baby bonuses, and Booyoung Group, a construction company, grants employees 100 million won per child, with retroactive payments for births since 2021.

These policies appeal to workers who want to start families without sacrificing their careers. Retention benefits are already visible in finance, where women now account for more than half of the workforce and average tenure for women is close to that of men. The risk is that benefits concentrate in large, profitable firms, while workers at smaller companies do not have the same options. Spreading best practices through industry groups and supply chains can help close that gap.

The government has widened childcare subsidies and cash support for parents as it tries to address low fertility. The total fertility rate ticked up to 0.75 in 2024, the first uptick in nine years, but it is far from the 2.1 children needed to maintain population size. Policy makers have emphasized more childcare places, expanded parental leave, and financial aid for newborns. The challenge now is to increase the use of benefits by both parents, streamline access, and align employer practices with statutory rights.

Increasing the share of fathers who take leave is especially important. Many men hesitate because of workplace culture and concerns about promotions. When fathers step back from work for caregiving, it normalizes flexibility for everyone, reduces the penalty mothers face, and supports a more equal division of care at home.

What would help more mothers stay and advance

Progress is real, but long career breaks are still common for mothers who leave. Sustaining the rise in working mothers and shortening absences will require coordinated action from employers and the state. The focus should be on making continuous employment a realistic default during a child’s early years and making reentry smoother for those who step away.

• Expand affordable childcare for infants and toddlers and increase after school care, with extended hours that match typical work schedules.
• Guarantee the right to request flexible schedules and remote work, and train managers to evaluate results rather than hours at a desk.
• Enforce caps on excessive overtime and encourage meeting schedules that end before evening caregiving hours.
• Make parental leave fully available to both parents, with a non transferable portion reserved for fathers to encourage uptake, and ensure job protection during leave.
• Scale up returnships, refresher training, and certification pathways in fast changing fields such as digital skills and healthcare.
• Strengthen anti discrimination enforcement against pregnancy and caregiving bias in hiring and promotion, and broaden pay transparency to narrow the gender pay gap.
• Support small and mid sized firms with subsidies to cover temporary replacements for employees on leave so benefits are not limited to large companies.
• Offer targeted support for families with multiple children, since career breaks are more common as family size grows.

At a Glance

• 64.3 percent of married women aged 15 to 54 with children under 18 were employed in the first half of 2025, the highest since comparable data began in 2016.
• Among all married women, the employment rate reached a record 67.3 percent.
• Career break women fell to 1.11 million, or 14.9 percent of married women in that age group, the lowest share since 2014.
• Career interruptions remain lengthy. 42.1 percent of those who left work have been out for at least 10 years and 22.3 percent for five to ten years.
• Childcare was the main reason for leaving jobs, cited by 44.3 percent, followed by marriage at 24.2 percent and pregnancy or childbirth at 22.1 percent.
• Mothers of teenagers are far more likely to be employed than those with preschoolers, 70.4 percent versus 57.7 percent.
• Employment for women in their 30s has climbed to around 73 percent on a monthly average, helping flatten the M curve.
• Companies and the state have expanded leave, flexibility, and childcare support, but wide adoption and higher paternity leave use are essential to shorten long absences.