South Korea’s #NoMarriage movement gains steam as women shun motherhood

Many young women in South Korea are rejecting marriage and long-held roles for women, including motherhood

The growing trend is proving a headache for the government, which is grappling with one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a shortfall in pension funding

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A woman takes a picture in the snow in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: AP

Published: 7:00am, 25 Jul 2019Updated: 4:49pm, 29 Jul 2019

During the week, Baeck Ha-na works in accounting. On weekends, she is a YouTube star in South Korea, promoting the “live-alone life”.

Baeck, whose YouTube channel in English is called “SOLOdarity”, objects to being called a “mi-hon” – someone who is not yet married. She’s part of a growing and determined group of South Korean women who are rejecting marriage and motherhood.

Such decisions are intensifying demographic and economic challenges for the government as the country faces one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a shortfall in pension funding that is getting harder to close with fewer workers joining the labour force.

“Society made me feel like a failure for being in my 30s and not yet a wife or a mother,” Baeck said. “Instead of belonging to someone, I now have a more ambitious future for myself.”

Baeck and her YouTube co-host maintain that the government’s current approach infuriates many women.

They argue that the latest efforts to boost birth rates are “abusive” and “frustrating”, because they fail to address the lack of legal avenues to ensure career development for mothers, or to alleviate financial burdens in raising children.