Echoes of the Maternal Prescription: Reflections on Timing Motherhood Amongst College-Educated South Korean Women

Abstract

South Korea recorded the lowest total fertility rate in the world of 0.72 in 2023, yet survey data consistently finds that young adults maintain sustained desires for marriage and children. This study investigates this paradox through in-depth interviews with college-educated South Korean women between the ages of 21 and 26, recruited from elite research institutions. Drawing on qualitative thematic analysis, the study examines how these women reflect on and negotiate the timing of motherhood and family formation as they navigate the structural tensions of compressed modernity. The findings demonstrate that their demographic retreat operates as an ethical praxis of self-preservation, as a continuous act of boundary-setting across somatic, spiritual, political, professional, and geographic domains. Rather than passive casualties of economic hardship or expressions of individualistic preference, these women emerge desirous of family life but structurally unable to access it on terms compatible with their professional identities and egalitarian expectations.