일·가정 양립을 위한 남성의 자녀양육 지원 실태와 개선 방안

Abstract

Despite the implementation of a policy supporting work-family balance as a means to resolve low birth rates, an overload of childrearing responsibilities are still burdensome to women. In order to improve its effectiveness, fathers are key resources who should be included as one of the primary caregivers, thus realizing gender equality in our society's childrearing culture. Therfore, to understand how males perceive their roles as fathers, their contribution to childcare and the difficulties in it, policies targeted to support father's childrearing practices and the usage status of programs for father traing were examined, which will show ways to improve the current status. Programs provided by the government are mainly for fathers working in corportations or locally operated, however lack in the number of facilites providing them. Family-friendly policies at the workplace are limited to paternal leaves. Also, fathers of infants or young children are relatively eager to participate in childrearing and desire to become an attentive, friend-like figure to their child, but to long hours at work and the lack of family-friendly policies at their workplace, actual participation was diffcult to achieve. They also demanded for policies allowing them to leave the office at regular hours, desired to use their partner's childbirth leaves, and had the most experience in experiential training and were inclined to participate. Consequently, the direction of the policies aiming to support male childrearing should be towards the establishment of the grounds for family-friendly policies foremostly, accompanied by effeorts of improve the quality of father training programs. The following are the specific measures: 1) the establishment of societal environment supportive of fathers' childrearing, 2) develop a national system supporting male childrearing, 3) target the subjects to prepatory fathers and fathers of infants or young children, 4) prioritization of family-friendly policies and develop strategies for expansion in companies according to the corporate culture, and 5) expansion of service infrastructures and the differentiation of subjects of father training programs. The tasks for the government are policy-related measure as well as the support of programs for fathers. In terms of policies, the government may 1) develop the basic and implementation plans for relevant national policies and establish a department responsible for the execution of such plans by providing information of childrearing and promoting related programs, etc, 2) approve the family-friendly systems of corporations, arrange personnel responsible for work-family balance, reinforce and promote family-friendly environment, 3) in the local societies, organize and operate consultative groups for fathers where discussions and workshops are held, and 4) induce fathers' participation in childcare centers and education institute to enhance social awareness. Also, there is a need for an emphasis on experiential programs, and these programs should mainly be conducted in corporations and facilities providing experiential training such as childcare centers or kindergartens. The expansion of service infrastructures and the enhancement of the interrelations among relevant facilites, mandatory operations of service facilites on weekends are also suggested.