South Korea is grappling with twin problems: its population is ageing rapidly, and workers are grinding themselves to the bone.
In the search for solutions, the government recently proposed extending the work week to create greater flexibility for families, but women say the move would only further entrench traditional gender roles.
It leaves many mothers facing the age-old conundrum of finding a work-life balance in a culture stacked against them, while younger women are less and less inclined to start their own families.
For Kim Sae Hee, the daunting reality is she will likely have to quit a job she loves to cope with the demands of being a mother.
Sae Hee and her husband assumed they could manage their careers and have a couple of kids.
"When I went back to work, the idea of having a second child completely disappeared," she said.
With her husband stuck at the office working very long hours, it has fallen on Sae Hee to manage the duties at home.
"It's hard because I, as a mother, have to take on more of these things," she said.
For now, it's tough but manageable, as the day care hours for her daughter, Ain, roughly match her working hours.
But that will change when Ain moves to kindergarten, and then school. By then, Sae Hee feels she will have to give up her job.
Women's career limitations are a big problem for South Korea
Sae Hee's story serves as a cautionary tale to young women in South Korea wanting to follow a career. And she is far from alone.
Interior architecture university student Song Yeon Jeong has already decided she won't have children, because she fears it would take too much away from her career ambitions.
"I would have to take a break from work [after childbirth] to take care of my children," she said.
The cost of living also weighs heavily on her mind, especially in Seoul, one of the fastest-growing property markets in the world in the grips of a housing affordability crisis.
"In my parents' generation, getting married and giving birth was a matter of course," Yeon Jeong said.
"But our generation thinks that marriage and childbirth have become a matter of choice. We freely talk about not wanting to have children."
Last year, South Korea posted the lowest fertility rate in the world at 0.78 children for every woman of child-bearing age — a figure that is steadily in decline.
And the country officially passed the "death cross" in 2020, recording more deaths than births that year, meaning the population is now shrinking.
It would need to almost triple the fertility rate — to 2.1 — just to keep the population steady, unless it boosts migration.
As a sign of the times, a childcare centre in Incheon remodelled itself as a a nursing home last year.
The ageing population will put tremendous strain on the country's finances — its National Pension Service is expected to run a deficit by 2041, and run out of cash by 2055.
That leaves a dwindling pool of tax-paying workers to prop up a growing cohort of retirees.
This is inextricably linked with South Korea's second problem.
Already, South Koreans endure some of the longest working hours among OECD nations, rating fifth behind Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
The highly competitive and rigid work culture means many employees work far beyond the standard legal hours.
"Rather than forcing you to do it, it's more like a culture that makes you feel you have no choice but overwork," Yeon Jeong said.
The problem is so severe, South Koreans have a word for it: "kwarosa", which means death from overwork.
How a longer work week was meant to help families
It was only in 2018 that South Korea had reduced the working week from 68 hours.
Currently, South Koreans are allowed to work 52 hours a week: a 40-hour week with 12 hours overtime.
But in January this year it floated a proposal to lift the legal amount of overtime to enable a 69-hour work week.
The government argued the move would create flexibility, allowing workers to bank the extra overtime to spend with family later on.
"If you are working at ice cream factory for example, you can work overtime seasonally, then save the hours of work and use later to go on a longer holiday," the Ministry of Employment and Labor said.
But the country's MZ Generation — a local term that captures both Millennials and Gen Z — delivered swift and resoundingly negative feedback.
Women's groups argued a 69-hour work week would entrench gender roles, with men stuck at work for longer, forcing women to stay at home.
"When a situation arises where one of the parents has to give up work, the mother will have no choice but to give up her job because the mother has more [expectation] to look after her child," Sae Hee said.
The backlash was so severe the government said in March it would take a new "direction", after listening to concerns from Gen Z and Millennials.
The government also announced this year it would increase maternity leave from 12 months to 18 months, in a bid to boost birth rates.
Sae Hee said providing employees more flexibility to maintain a job and care for children is a necessary step. At her job, there's no such thing as carers' leave, only annual leave.
"If a child is sick, there is no place for the kid to go … So, I normally take a day off from my holidays for that," she said.
"It's a difficult environment to advance one's career."
Korea has had the highest gender wage gap in the OECD since 1996, with the most recent survey in 2021 showing women earn 31.1 per cent less than men. The OECD average is 12 per cent.
Labour force participation rates for women are at 53 per cent, compared to 72 per cent for men.
The former minister for gender equality, Chung Hyun-back, says while female job participation rates have increased, much of that comes down to irregular, low-paying jobs.
She said ensuring quality workplace conditions would encourage working women who want to start families to pursue that alongside career goals.
"A good example is Sejong City and Naju, which have the highest birth rates in Korea," she said.
"Since Sejong City is a government city and the place where public officials mainly live, they are people with stable jobs.
"The Naju City government intentionally moved large public corporations to Naju for decentralisation, and the birth rate is rising."
But advocates say changes in policy can only go so far, and that the culture needs to shift for the women of South Korea to see any meaningful change.
Changing the tide on South Korea's entrenched sexism
Entrenched sexism and gender discrimination have long been a hot topic in Korea.
The country's Me Too movement is widely renowned as one of the most powerful in Asia, and in 2019, the "escape the corset" movement saw women around the country protesting against workplace sexual harassment.
But the changing tide also saw the rise of an "anti-feminist" cohort that see men as the victim of reverse discrimination.
This was an issue that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol tapped into when he was elected in early 2022.
His government vowed to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality, which supports women and victims of sexual assault, arguing it treated men like "potential sex criminals".
Still, issues of workplace discrimination against women are not going away.
According to an online survey in 2022, 30 per cent of Korean office workers had experienced some form of workplace harassment in the past year, with women and part time workers more likely to be the victims.
One woman told the BBC she was forced to make her male colleagues' lunch and wash their hand towels, despite being employed as a bank clerk.
Hyun-back said women had also found their roles downgraded to more menial work after maternity leave.
"Hearing of such things happening to women … can scare other women into thinking, 'I shouldn't have children'. Therefore, improving the workplace culture is very important," she said.
"Korean society is still a sexist culture."
