"I'm putting my youth, health, job, colleagues, social networks, career plans and future on the line. No wonder all I can think about are the things I'm giving up. But what about you? What do you lose by gaining a child?"

I was appalled when reading this book. You'd think you can never be shocked by how women are dehumanised cos you read about it so many times but it never fails to shock.
I've never been to Korea but watching a lot of K-dramas has shown me how exhausting being a woman in that country can be. You would think that in a country as technologically and economically advanced as South Korea, women's rights wouldn't be in the mud. And it's not just Korea you know, so many countries are just so cruel about women's rights. Like women exist simply to be accessories to men and pop out babies. The casual violence meted out to their dreams and aspirations.

I read the birth rate in S.Korea is at record low and honestly more power to the women refusing to bring children into such a society that treats them like trash.

p.s: after reading the book. I'm of the opinion that, while the movie of this book was good, it did a dis-service to the message of this book. I don't know if they were going for a "there's a light at the end of the tunnel" kind of thing but i felt the act of ending the movie on a bright and happy note dilluted the agony and helplessness most women feel in that position. It did capture most of the injustice & violence women face well but the prevailing message, that for the most part women in South Korea are absolutely let down by society is lost.
Take for example the fact that in the movie, Jiyoung's therapist is a woman. However, in the book it's a man who we are told is married to a woman who even though she was way more brilliant than him in medical school had to give her career up when they had a child. This male therapist despite listening to all of Jiyoung's problems in the book ends with him musing about a receptionist who just quit because she was pregnant.

"Even the best female employees can cause many problems if they don't have the childcare issue taken care of. I'll have to make sure her replacement is unmarried"