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Pregnant women doing housework: outrage over recommendations in South Korea
Photo: monzenmachi / Getty Images
During pregnancy there can be many things a woman has to deal with: diet rules, leaden tiredness, worries about childbirth, pain, inability to move and the constant responsibility for this little life in her own body.
What can help with all of this is support.
What doesn't help at all: even more pressure.
The Seoul city government apparently saw it differently.
The health authority of the South Korean capital caused a sexism scandal when it posted tips for pregnant women on its website the day before yesterday.
As reported by the Yonhap news agency, the women there were asked, among other things, to ensure that their families had clean clothes shortly before the due date: »Prepare clean underwear for the three or seven days that you will be in the hospital, Socks, shirts, handkerchiefs and outerwear for your husband and children and leave them neatly in a drawer. "
In addition, a pregnant woman should take care not to gain weight too much.
As a motivation, she should hang up some items of clothing from before the pregnancy in the room so that she does not overeat and take it off quickly after the delivery.
She shouldn't postpone housework, but use it as a sports program - and before going to the hospital, the woman should remember to prepare at least three or four dishes that her husband, "who is a bad cook, can easily prepare."
Gender warfare has been smoldering for years
Although these recommendations have been there since the site's launch a year and a half ago, it was only in the past few days that they gained wider social media attention and caused great outrage.
For example, someone raised the question of whether the government only considers women to be their husbands housekeepers.
Elsewhere it says: "Towards the end of a pregnancy it is even difficult to breathe and they expect us to prepare underwear and food for our men?"
In the meantime, the authority has deleted the content - but pointed out that it had only taken over from the Ministry of Health.
They can no longer be found on his website either.
Such a sexism scandal is not an isolated case in South Korea: The country repeatedly performs poorly internationally when it comes to equal treatment of the sexes.
It was ranked 108 out of 153 in the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report 2020. In addition, South Korea is one of the few countries in the world where more women than men are killed each year - a symptom of deeply rooted contempt for women.
Many South Koreans no longer want to accept any of this, rebel against misogyne structures and conservative role models - or step out of them.
For example, South Korea has had the lowest birth rate in the world since last year, which many of the women affected justify by not wanting to be pushed into the role of housewives.
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