Living as a Breadwinner Mom

by Jiin, Lee

How do you think about working moms? If you are a man, do you want your wife to work and earn money, or stay at home and be a housewife? If you are a woman, do you want to have a job after you marry, or to be a housewife and focus on caring about family? In this modern society, most women go to work and do house works at the same time, not only because their income that their husbands earn is not enough to support their family, but also because women want to participate in labor market in order to make themselves feel self-achievement and control the purse strings in the family.

For instance, it’s hard to find women who don’t have a job after marriage in Korea. Many women keep their job even after marriage, and this contributes to the family budget and increase of their self-achievement.  However, the problem is that women who go to work should do house chores at the same time. Many Korean think house chores are women’s jobs. Therefore, many women in Korea complain about hard work both in the work place and in the house. As it becomes difficult to support family by only one’s income because of an expensive education fee, a sharp increase in prices, and so on, many women are forced to participate in labor market even though they don’t want to do.

Based on the research, more and more breadwinner moms who are reluctant to go to work and earn money complain about their situations. They should go to work and they are charge of doing house works concurrently. Because they don’t go to work spontaneously, their satisfaction about their works is very low. However, women who participate in labor market voluntarily show high satisfaction about their works and their role in the family. They know how to manage their house works and their husbands are glad to do those works together. One of good tips for keeping men doing house works is not to interfere in what they do about house works. For example, if husbands whose role is washing dishes want to keep the dryer in the right side of the sink, wives should not change the position but let them do that.  

I think women and men should learn how to do house works harmoniously in this change society where both women and men are asked to go to work and earn money for the family. Let’s be wise!

Survey: Reluctant breadwinner moms are less happy by Kelly Wallace, CNN(02/12/14)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/11/living/breadwinner-moms-survey-parents/index.html?hpt=li_c2