women s position in the labour market is poor as indicated by the wide gender pay gaps and limited number of female managers chapters and korean policy is moving to further strengthen worklife balance policies such as parental leave and childcare support but as long as workplace culture involves long working hours socialising after work and a senioritybased pay system which punishes women for leaving their jobs to have children social policy reform will have relatively little effect however from the workingage population is projected to decline and korea s demographic dividend will start to erode the country which has traditionally experienced little immigration will need to use its human capital more effectively to face the challenge of a potentially dwindling pool of paid and unpaid workers