[Interview] Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo-gu, "Full Operation of Support Projects for Career-Interrupted Women & Caregivers in the Second Half"

Mapo Job Center Operates Dedicated Counter for Career-Interrupted Women...Special Lectures on Job Searching and Startups Using SNS...Evening 'Babysitter House' for Working Parents...Offline 'Mom Cafe' Also Opened

"Women's career discontinuity and low birth rates should not be viewed separately. Mapo-gu will provide strong support so that people can work while having and raising children without any problems."

Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said this as he announced the official launch of policies to support women with career breaks and parents raising children in the second half of this year.

This is drawing even more attention as a key project in the second half of the 8th term of Mapo-gu's administration, which has achieved great success by consecutively introducing senior citizen respect series policies, including the 'Resident Participation Filial Piety Meal.'

According to the report "Concerns about Women's Career Discontinuity and Declining Fertility Rates" published by the Korea Development Institute (KDI) in April, the probability of career discontinuity among women in their 30s last year showed a significant difference depending on whether they had children. The rate of career discontinuity among childless women in their 30s dropped sharply from 33% in 2014 to 9% in 2023, whereas for women with children, it only decreased from 28% to 24% during the same period.

Simply put, childbirth can be seen as increasing the probability of career discontinuity by 14%.

Regarding this, Mayor Park explained, "Even if women have children, there is no support system to help with childcare, and working parents especially have nowhere to leave their children in the evening hours. This reality leads to a vicious cycle where women quit their jobs during pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare, becoming career-discontinued women."

In response, Mapo-gu plans to break this vicious cycle by providing full support for employment and entrepreneurship for women with career breaks starting in the second half of the year, while also promoting the 'Babysitter House' and 'Mom Cafe' projects to alleviate the difficulties of caregivers.

First, starting August 8, the district will hold a series of three special lectures on promotion and branding using essential skills for recent startups such as blogs and SNS. This education, conducted by brand consulting and entrepreneurship experts, received great response with all sessions fully booked well in advance.

Additionally, the district operates a dedicated window for women with career breaks at the Mapo Job Placement Center, opened on the first floor of Mapo-gu Office in May last year. Professional career counselors provide one-on-one customized consultations based on age, gender, and experience, linking them to education and employment/entrepreneurship support through related organizations such as the Mapo Employment Welfare Support Center.

Moreover, any woman with a career break can take free lifelong learning programs and vocational skill enhancement courses such as digital drawing and eco-friendly product making at 11 Mapo neighborhood learning centers.

The Mapo Women's Accompaniment Center is also actively conducting employment education for women. The district stated that instructors trained through career break women's employment education are actively working in local daycare centers and senior centers.

Along with this, the district is promoting the 'Babysitter House' and 'Mom Cafe' projects in the fourth quarter of this year. Unlike most daycare centers and kindergartens where children leave before 7 p.m., the Mapo-style childcare facility, Babysitter House, plans to set usage hours to allow children to be cared for after 6 p.m. The district plans to manage the childcare environment transparently by installing CCTV inside the facility.

Also, the 'Mom Cafe,' scheduled to open in December, is a space that materializes an online mom cafe where caregivers can communicate, obtain information, and relieve stress.

The district plans to equip this space with various convenience facilities such as an entertainment room, shared kitchen, and reading area, making it a place where caregivers, who are prone to parenting depression, can laugh, communicate, and heal healthily together.

Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, "I applaud Kim Ji-hyun, who won South Korea's first medal at the Paris Olympics and is a mother athlete who overcame the slump caused by childbirth to achieve great results." He added, "Mapo-gu will tackle the ultra-low birthrate crisis and women's career discontinuity issues that South Korea is currently facing together." He continued, "We will create an environment where children born in Mapo-gu, as well as caregivers raising children, especially working parents, do not have to struggle to have and raise children." He concluded, "Mapo-gu will do its best to support women's employment and entrepreneurship, as well as childcare support and quality of life improvement for caregiving parents."

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