The Return of Superman? Individual and Organizational Predictors of Men’s Housework in South Korea

Abstract

In this survey study, we investigate factors that predict the extent of men’s engagement in housework in South Korea. Using data collected from 466 working fathers during the period from March 2013 to August 2013, it was found that a more egalitarian gender ideology and supervisor support for work–family balance were significant predictors of the frequency of men’s participation in housework (i.e., child-rearing activities and household chores), but that long work hours, which are prevalent in South Korea, moderated these relationships. More specifically, the condition of long average work hours reduced the positive effect of an egalitarian gender ideology and a supportive supervisor attitude on the extent of housework. Therefore, we contend that the effects of changes in individuals’ attitudes toward men’s housework will be limited without addressing cultural norms of overwork or “work devotion” in South Korea.

Keywords

gender ideology workplace social support work hours men’s housework South Korea

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aiken

L. S.

West

S. G.

(1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Bae

Chung

C. S.

(1997). Cultural values and work attitudes of Korean industrial workers in comparison with those of the United States and Japan. Work and Occupations, 24, 80-96.

Baek

Kelly

E. L.

(2013). Noncompliance with parental leave provisions in Korea: Extending institutional research to a new legal context. Law & Social Inquiry, 39, 176-202.

Behson

S. J.

(2005). The relative contribution of formal and informal organizational work-family. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66, 487-500.

Berdahl

J. L.

Moon

S. H.

(2013). Workplace mistreatment of middle class workers based on sex, parenthood, and caregiving. Journal of Social Issues, 69, 341-366.

Bianchi

Sayer

L. C.

Milkie

M. A.

Robinson

J. P.

(2012). Housework: Who did, does or will do it, and how much does it matter? Social Forces, 91, 55-63.

Blair-Loy

(2001). Cultural constructions of family schemas: The case of female finance executives. Gender & Society, 15, 687-709.

Blair-Loy

Wharton

A. S.

(2002). Employees’ use of family-responsive policies and the workplace social context. Social Forces, 80, 813-845.

Brogan

Kutner

(1976). Measuring sex-role orientation: A normative approach. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 3l-40.

10.

Carlson

D. S.

Kacmar

K. M.

Williams

L. J.

(2000). Construction and initial validation of a multidimensional measure of work–family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 249-276.

11.

Carlson

D. S.

Perrewe

P. L.

(1999). The role of social support in the stressor-strain relationship: An examination of work-family conflict. Journal of Management, 25, 513-540.

12.

Cha

Weeden

K. A.

(2014). Overwork and the slow convergence in the gender gap in wages. American Sociological Review, 79, 457-484.

13.

Coltrane

(2000). Research on household labor: Modeling and measuring the social embeddedness of routine family work. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 1209-1233.

14.

Dahl

G. B.

Loken

K. V.

Mogstad

(2014). Peer effects in program participation. American Economic Review, 104, 2049-2074.

15.

Davis

S. N.

Wills

J. B.

(2014). Theoretical explanations amid social change: A content analysis of housework research (1975-2012). Journal of Family Issues, 35, 808-824.

16.

Eco

Chilton

(1972). The myth of superman [Review of the book The amazing adventures of superman, by U. Eco & N. Chilton]. Diacritics, 2(1), 14-22.

17.

Edwards

Rothbard

(2000). Mechanism linking work and family: Clarifying the relationship between work and family constructs. Academy of Management Review, 25, 178-199.

18.

Evertsson

(2014). Gender ideology and the sharing of housework and child care in Sweden. Journal of Family Issues, 35, 927-949.

19.

Frank

R. H.

Cook

P. J.

(1995). The winner-take-all society. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

20.

Geurts

S. A. E.

Beckers

D. G. J.

Taris

T. W.

Kompier

M. A. J.

Smulders

P. G. W.

(2009). Worktime demands and work-family interference: Does worktime control buffer the adverse effects of high demands? Journal of Business Ethics, 84, 229-241.

21.

Goldberger

A. S.

(1991). A course in econometrics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

22.

Goldin

(2014). A grand gender convergence: Its last chapter. American Economic Review, 104, 1091-1119.

23.

Goldscheider

Bernhardt

Lappegard

(2014). Studies of men’s involvement in the family. Journal of Family Issues, 35, 879-890.

24.

Goodstein

(1994). Institutional pressures and strategic responsiveness: Employer involvement in work/family issues. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 350-382.

25.

Hofstede

(2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

26.

Hofstede

Bond

M. H.

(1988). The Confucius connection: From cultural roots to economic growth. Organizational Dynamics, 16(4), 5-21.

27.

Hook

J. L.

(2006). Care in context: Men’s unpaid work in 20 countries, 1965-2003. American Sociological Review, 71, 639-660.

28.

Jones

(2007). Delayed marriage and very low fertility in Pacific Asia. Population and Development Review, 33, 453-478.

29.

Jones

Ghubaji

(2009). Factors influencing changes in mean age at first marriage and proportions never marrying in the low fertility countries of East and Southeast Asia. Asian Population Studies, 5, 237-265.

30.

Jones

Yeung

W. J.

(2014). Marriage in Asia. Journal of Family Issues, 35, 1567-1583.

31.

Kim

J. S.

Faerman

S. R.

(2013). Exploring the relationship between culture and family-friendly programs (FFPs) in the Republic of Korea. European Management Journal, 31, 505-521.

32.

Kim

E. A.

Park

G. S.

(2003). Nationalism, Confucianism, work ethic and industrialization in South Korea. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 33, 37-49.

33.

KOrean Statistical Information Service. (n.d.). Total fertility rates and age-specific fertility rates for provinces. Retrieved from http://kosis.kr/eng

34.

Kossek

Pichler

Bodner

Hammer

(2011). Workplace social support and work-family conflict: A meta-analysis clarifying the influence of general and work-family specific supervisor and organizational support. Personnel Psychology, 64, 289-313.

35.

Lachance-Grzela

Bouchard

(2010). Why do women do the lion’s share of housework? A decade of research. Sex Roles, 63, 767-780.

36.

Lazear

E. P.

Rosen

(1981). Rank-order tournaments as optimum labor contracts. Journal of Political Economy, 89, 841-864.

37.

Lee

K. K.

(1998). Confucian tradition in the contemporary Korean family. In Slote

W. H.

DeVos

G. A.

(Eds.), Confucianism and the family (pp. 249-266). Albany: State University of New York Press.

38.

Major

V. S.

Klein

Ehrhart

M. G.

(2002). Work time, work interference with family, and psychological distress. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 427-436.

39.

Meyer

J. W.

Rowan

(1977). Institutional organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340-363.

40.

Ministry of Employment and Labor. (2014). Fathers’ childcare leave. Retrieved from http://news.molab.go.kr

41.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development iLibrary. (n.d.-a). Average annual hours actually worked per worker. Retrieved from https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS

42.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development iLibrary. (n.d.-b). Average usual weekly hours worked on the main job. Retrieved from https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AVE_HRS

43.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development iLibrary. (2013, January). Fathers’ leave, fathers’ involvement and child development: Are they related. Evidence from four OECD countries (Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers). Retrieved from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/fathers-leave-fathers-involvement-and-child-development_5k4dlw9w6czq-en

44.

Podsakoff

P. M.

MacKenzie

S. M.

Lee

Podsakoff

N. P.

(2003). Common method variance in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879-903.

45.

Shelton

B. A.

John

(1996). The division of household labor. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 299-322.

46.

Shinn

Wong

N. W.

Simko

P. A.

Ortiz-Torres

(1989). Promoting well-being of working parents: Coping, social support, and flexible schedules. American Journal of Community Psychology, 17, 31-55.

47.

Song

(2014, August 23). Paternal childcare out of TV programs. Busan Newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.busan.com/

48.

Sullivan

Billari

F. C.

Altintas

(2014). Fathers’ changing contribution to child care and domestic work in very-low fertility countries: The effect of education. Journal of Family Issues, 35, 1048-1065.

49.

The Economist. (2013, October 26). Women in South Korea: A pram too far. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21588207-faced-overwhelming-pressures-south-korean-women-have-gone-baby-strike-pram-too

50.

The Economist. (2015, May 16). Parenting and work: A father’s place. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/international/21651203-men-have-long-been-discouraged-playing-equal-role-home-last-starting

51.

Thomas

L. T.

Ganster

D. C.

(1995). Impact of family-supportive work variables on work-family conflict and strain: A control perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 6-15.

52.

Thompson

C. A.

Beauvais

L. L.

Lyness

K. S.

(1999). When work-family benefits are not enough: The influence of work-family culture on benefit utilization, organizational attachment, and work-family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 54, 392-415.

53.

United Nations Development Programme. (2014). Human Development Report. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org

54.

van Daalen

Willemsen

T. M.

Sanders

. (2006). Reducing work-family conflict through different sources of social support. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69, 462-476.

55.

Williams

J. C.

(2010). Reshaping the work-family debate: Why men and class matter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

56.

Williams

J. C.

Blair-Loy

Berdahl

J. L.

(2013). Cultural schemas, social class, and the flexibility stigma. Journal of Social Issues, 69, 209-234.

57.

Won

Pascall

(2004). A Confucian war over childcare? Practice and policy in childcare and their implications for understanding the Korean gender regime. Social Policy & Administration, 38, 270-289.

58.

World Economic Forum. (2014). The Global Gender Gap Report 2014. Retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2014/