The Women Behind South Korea's #NoMarriage Trend

Meet Baek Ha-na and Jung Se-young, the women behind South Korea's #NoMarriage trend. The country has the lowest fertility rate in the developed world, according to the World Bank.

Baeck Ha-na works in accounting during the week. On weekends, she’s a YouTube star in South Korea, promoting the “live-alone life.”

Baeck, whose YouTube channel in English is called “Solo-darity,” objects to being called a “mi-hon” -- someone who is not yet married. She’s part of a growing and determined group of Korean women rejecting marriage and motherhood.

Such decisions are intensifying demographic and economic challenges for the government as the country faces one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a shortfall in pension funding that is getting harder to close with fewer workers joining the labor force.

“Society made me feel like a failure for being in my 30’s and not yet a wife or a mother,” Baeck said. “Instead of belonging to someone, I now have a more ambitious future for myself.”

Baeck and her YouTube co-host maintain that the government’s current approach infuriates many women. They argue that the latest efforts to boost birthrates are “abusive” and “frustrating” because they fail to address the lack of legal avenues to ensure career development for mothers or alleviating financial burdens in raising children.

When it comes to the birth rate, South Korea has ranked at the bottom of OECD countries in the Asia-Pacific region since 2016, with that rate going even lower this year. According to data compiled by the World Bank, South Korea and Puerto Rico tied for the lowest overall rates as of 2017: Seven children per 1,000 people, followed by Japan and Hong Kong.

Data from South Korea’s national statistics agency in April showed the number of births dropped even further as of February, a 7% decline from a year earlier. In 2019, the number of those dying is expected to outpace the number of those being born, the report said.

A separate report from the agency shows fewer women believe marriage is a must. In 2010, 64.7% of women in South Korea answered that marriage is required for women, while 48.1% gave the same response in 2018.

South Korea’s government is reacting by offering incentives to encourage marriage and especially parenthood. In Sejong, a city designated to be South Korea’s new administrative capital, about 30 single men and women attended their latest event in June. The office’s goal was to encourage working single men and women to take part in “recreational activities and table talks.”

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in launched a committee in December 2017 to tackle the country’s low birth rate, called the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy.

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