South Korean women married to men from regions with stronger preference for sons tend to spend more time on housework than those in less conservative households, a study showed Friday. 

Korean men born in regions such as Gyeongsang Province with strong tendencies toward traditional gender roles cause imbalance in the amount of shared domestic chores with the wife, the report said.

Led by economics professor Lee Chul-hee of Seoul National University, the research team studied the gender ratio at birth by region in the early and mid-1990s to examine the link among Korean parents’ preference for son, gender roles and house chores. The sex ratio indicates the number of boys born for every 100 girls. 

The team chose the period of the early and mid-1990s for their work as the technology for defining the sex of the fetus became available in the country around that time.

A regression analysis found that an increase in the boys-to-girls ratio from 105 to 115 would be associated with an increase in women’s time spent on housework by 34 minutes per day during the period. 

For example, in 1990, the wives married into families from North Gyeongsang Province spent 65 minutes more per day on housework, compared to women married to men from Incheon, the research showed. The two regions showed a stark contrast in preference for boys, with the average sex ratio of North Gyeongsang Province being 131 compared to Incheon’s 112.

Out of 16 provinces cited in the study, the highest sex ratio at birth was recorded in Daegu followed by North Gyeongsang Province, Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province and Busan. 

“The research implies that the household gender disparity can only be tackled when husbands change their attitudes towards gender roles as socio-economic conditions for women continues to improve,” the professor said. 

He expected, however, that the gender imbalance in household could have narrowed at a faster pace in the 2000s as the preference for sons in the country has been constantly abating. 

The sex ratio in South Korea reached 116.5 in 1990, but the figure fell to 105.3 in 2014, the lowest ever. The average global sex ratio is between 104 to 106 boys per 100 girls, according to the United Nations Population Fund. 

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)