The unseen burden: Soong-nang Jang’s passionate call for gender-responsive eldercare policies
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Authors: Jaeeun Lee and Ahjung Lee
Soong-nang Jang, Dean of the Red Cross College of Nursing at Chung-Ang University and a leading advocate for caregiving rights in the Republic of Korea (ROK), vividly recalls two defining moments in her life: the day her daughter first stopped wearing diapers and the day she had to put a diaper on her elderly father for the first time.
“I cheered when my daughter no longer needed me to change her. But years later, when I had to put a diaper on my father for the first time, I cried. Was it out of compassion for him? Fear of the immense caregiving burden ahead? Perhaps both,” she recounted.
Speaking at the International Women’s Day 2025 commemoration event in Seoul on 12 March, hosted by the UN Women Knowledge and Partnerships Centre in the Republic of Korea (Centre in ROK), Jang discussed profound gender inequalities in caregiving and called for a paradigm shift to address the gendered injustices embedded in ROK’s caregiving system.
From informal family settings to professional caregiving industries, Korean women bear a disproportionate burden – often with little recognition or support.
In ROK, eldercare has become a serious issue, as the country is experiencing a critical demographic transition characterized by the world’s lowest fertility rate alongside a rapidly aging population, Jang argued.
Gendered burden in informal caregiving
According to Jang, nearly 90 per cent of elderly individuals worldwide receive care from family members. No matter how well-developed long-term care systems or public caregiving services may be, the primary source of care remains within intimate relationships.
“In Korea, where familism remains deeply rooted, over 70 per cent of informal caregivers are women,” she noted.
The gendered realities of care work create vulnerabilities on both ends of the caregiving spectrum. For elderly men who rely on spousal care, the absence or incapacity of a wife often leads to a caregiving gap. Conversely, for elderly women providing care, the burden can be overwhelming.
“Many elderly women suffer from poor health themselves, yet they find no escape from caregiving responsibilities. They juggle childcare, eldercare for their parents or in-laws, and later, spousal care, sometimes even grandchild care, all in an unending cycle,” Jang pointed out.
According to her research, “Korean women live with a structural injustice that makes it nearly impossible to break free from excessive caregiving duties,” Jang said. She further observed that societies heavily reliant on women for unpaid care tend to see higher rates of depression among women and lower female workforce participation, calling for urgent policy reforms.
The situation is similar in the formalized care workforce, with over 80 per cent of workers being women. Jang explained that this gender imbalance stems from deep-rooted societal structures and cultural expectations that view caregiving as a natural duty of women while failing to recognize its economic value.
Jang further emphasized that poor working conditions for women care workers – such as low wages, precarious environments and insufficient socioeconomic recognition – contribute to high turnover rates and chronic understaffing in essential services, ultimately exacerbating the care burden disproportionately shouldered by women in the informal sector.
Breaking the cycle: The urgency for reform
Calling for a paradigm shift in care, Jang contended that care work must be recognized as essential labour and a societal concern, not merely women’s work. She also concluded that without fair wages and improved working conditions, caregiving will remain an undervalued burden disproportionately placed on women. She recommended that Korea reduce its reliance on familial caregiving and invest in accessible and affordable public care services.
She also stressed that more serious efforts need to be made to shift cultural attitudes, so that men can accept their caregiving responsibilities from a young age. Without the active participation of men, gender inequality in and through caregiving would only remain and escalate. Lastly, Jang called for fundamental care policy reform so that the needs and challenges of caregivers are systematically addressed.
Her call to action was clear: “We must recognize caregiving as a shared responsibility, not an individual sacrifice. Only through systemic reform can the country build a more equitable and sustainable caregiving model.”