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Relational ethics as a cultural constraint on fathers' parental leave in a Confucian welfare state, South Korea
Author(s) -
Kim YeonJin,
Kim Suyoung
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12565
Subject(s) - sociocultural evolution , welfare state , welfare , incentive , parental leave , government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , sociology , political science , social psychology , psychology , politics , law , economics , work (physics) , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , computer science , microeconomics , engineering
Promoting fathers' parental leave has recently become of major policy interest in many welfare states. The Korean Government also introduced paid parental leave for working fathers in 2001 and has increasingly strengthened such incentive schemes. However, despite its rapid advancement, fathers' utilisation of parental leave is increasing slowly and most fathers still opt out of their responsibilities for childcare. As sociocultural norms are a primary cause of this low take‐up behaviour pattern, this study focuses on the Confucian relational ethics deeply embedded in Korean society. Through in‐depth interviews with 15 Korean working couples, this article demonstrates how Confucian relational ethics constrain fathers from enjoying their individual right to parental leave by designating them as last‐resort caregivers within families and as forefront workers in the workplace. This study shows the importance of the sociocultural grounding of a society to ordinary citizens when they utilise a social policy in their daily lives.