A study by Korea Development Institute 한국개발연구원 compared the employment trends of the COVID-19 pandemic economy of 2020 and the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, and found that as of March 2020, the number of employed women aged 25 to 54 decreased by 541k on a year-to-year basis, while the equivalent number for men decreased by 327k. The employment shock was the most pronounced among married women with young children.
Professor Changhwan Kim at University of Kansas noted that the shutdown of schools - a socially provided childcare system - pushed more women to give up work. Also, South Korea’s strong response to the pandemic ironically increased the gender gap, as the society avoided the general lockdown that would have pushed men to stay home along with their wives, sharing childcare duties.