Korean Immigrant Wives' Overwork

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to demonstrate, based on interviews with 298 Korean married women in New York City, the extent to which Korean immigrant wives overwork. Its secondary objective is to analyze the factors that contribute to the differentials in Korean immigrant wives' share of housework. A large majority of Korean immigrant wives in New York City are found to take the economic role. An overwhelming majority of Korean working wives are involved in excessively long hours of work, comparable to their husbands. Moreover, Korean immigrant working wives are responsible for most of housework. As a result, they spend some twelve more hours per week than their working husbands. As expected, the amount of time Korean immigrant wives spend for paid work and the number of their cohabiting extra adult members significantly reduce their share of housework. Years of education Korean immigrant wives received have a moderate, but statistically significant negative effect on their proportion of housework. However, neither their length of residence in the U.S. nor gender role attitudes have a significant effect on their share of housework.