[W Forum] Rethinking Care Work

Jeong Eun-gwi, Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

I injured my hand while showing off my cooking skills. When I went to the emergency room, they said that many people get injured while cooking during the COVID-19 period and told me, "Don't worry, we'll stitch it up well." Those words gently eased my mind. That's the power of words. "Don't worry." "It's okay." "Thank you." There are words that give hope to the listener.

Why can’t you do anything else? Why are you always like this? Such words make the listener feel discouraged. There are also words that sting immediately but hit the mind like a shot, leaving one dazed. Words have life; they can save people, but thoughtless words can also kill. The long and uncomfortable time in the emergency room remains in my memory not so badly thanks to those kind words.

I return and continue my daily life. Although only a small part of my body is injured, doing dishes, washing my face, working on the computer, even turning pages of a book or buttoning clothes is uncomfortable. I realize how mysteriously and harmoniously this body that has supported me so far has worked, and every day I have lived safely feels like a miracle. My husband, who used to receive breakfast every morning, now prepares his own breakfast. Through my injured hand, I newly recall the meaning of ‘care’ that I had forgotten until now.

The ‘Three Obediences (Samjongjideok, 三從之德)’ from Confucian teachings, which said that in childhood one should follow the father, after marriage the husband, and in old age the son, is now an old saying, but the way of ‘care labor’?where in childhood the mother, after marriage the wife, and in old age the daughter take responsibility?still deeply permeates our society.

Care labor is like the role of the hand in the body. Care labor, which is taken for granted under the name of love, operates within a very unequal structure economically and sexually when extended from the family to society and the state. Unmarried daughters are the parents’ old-age insurance, and low-income women in their 50s and migrant female care workers have become like the state’s insurance.

Just as the hand’s work in the body is small but important, care labor in a society is small but crucial, yet we do not recognize its value. We even consider it lowly and accept sexual and economic inequality as natural. Although important productive activities in our society are maintained thanks to the invisible dedication of care workers, we are indifferent to the system in which care labor is performed. Care workers are socially very neglected, just as the hand is poorly treated in the body. Moreover, care labor is often wrapped in sacrifice or service based on emotional and moral characteristics, and caregivers are forced into infinite sacrifice.

Looking at my injured hand, I think about the care we received at every stage of life?the touch mainly provided by mothers, wives, and daughters was not something to be taken for granted. It is important to recognize care labor as a professional labor field, not as someone’s sacrifice. We also need to reconsider the reality where welfare policies are still established based on premodern family views, even as marriage rates decline and single-person households increase.

Building a public system for care labor must start by newly examining the current global moment of changing individual life cycles, family, and social structures. Care is something everyone needs throughout their entire life cycle. Awareness and policy changes that free care labor, which has relied on invisible female sacrifice, from the stigma of undervaluation are urgently needed.

Jeong Eun-gwi, Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.