2019. 11. 26

According to the research conducted by Center for Transnational Migration and Social Inclusion, 85% of caregivers for the elderly were women. It is fact that “female” rather than the eldest son or parent-child has played a major role in becoming a primary caregiver. Dr. Hyuna Moon, who conducted the research, said “Our society has never agreed on who should be responsible for caring in the family, but the social perception that caring is women’s work strongly affects within the family, so women are dedicated to caring for the elderly.” From the other in-depth interviews, it can be seen that elderly care was a heavy burden to carry alone for a caregiver.

Dr. Moon said, “The government-funded care service hours need to be expanded much more than now and this is not just a way to ease the intensity of family care work”. In terms of the fact that interviewed careworkers have pride in their works by considering that their care work is valuable and professional, care is more effective as being done by a third party, not the family. She argued that the social atmosphere in which intimacy is formed only by kinship must be changed so that socialization of care will take place and the government will take more responsibility for the care issue.