South Korea will soon have a new president. In what is regarded as the closest presidential win in the country’s history, Yoon Sook-yeol from the opposition People Power Party beat out the governing Democratic Party led by Lee Jae-myung in early March. Yoon has vowed to pay particular attention to people’s livelihoods and to welfare services. He wants to unify the nation and introduce a new age of active participation in the international community. But despite being president-elect in the world’s 10th largest economy, Yoon won’t have an easy ride. There has already been extensive public backlash to his election – and women are perhaps the most concerned about what the avowed anti-feminist’s rule will bring.
Comparisons with Trump
Yoon, 61, served as the South Korean prosecutor general from 2019 to 2021 under President Moon Jae-in and played a key role in the prosecution for corruption of former President Park Geun-hye. Yoon joined the presidential race late last year; his style of campaigning drew immediate attention. Several publications and observers drew stark parallels with the US presidential campaign, with Yoon being compared to Donald Trump. Reference was made to Yoon’s style of speaking and barrage of offensive comments during the campaign. Many were particularly concerned by a comment that was interpreted as praise for the former South Korean President and military dictator, Chun Doo-hwan, who was known for his brutal mistreatment of pro-democratic protesters in the 1980s. Additionally, and more alarmingly, despite somewhat virtuous presidential ambitions to address key economic shortcomings, Yoon pledged to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality.
Yoon argues that women in South Korea do not face systemic discrimination. This, despite vast evidence to the contrary. Yoon blames South Korea’s low birthrate on the rise of feminism and women being more assertive about their rights.
In spite of the aspirations of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, South Korea has the worst record for women’s rights in the developed world. Experts in the country affirm that laws do not provide sufficient punishment for crimes against women and girls and that the judicial system’s approach to crimes against women and girls is intrinsically linked to the country’s patriarchal society. The stigmatisation of women's rights by Yoon’s campaign is strongly supported by his voter base, made up largely of young men who believe the president-elect speaks for them.
Anti-Feminist Rhetoric
Amid skyrocketing housing costs, an increasing wealth gap and soaring numbers of youth unemployment, people in South Korea are looking for a change. In his presidential campaign, Yoon promised to address the social and economic issues plaguing the county. However, in doing, so he weaponised the frustrations of young men at the expense of women’s rights.
South Korean men reject notions of masculine privilege and the benefits that come with patriarchal forms of sexism. Furthermore, a study revealed that young men’s impressions of sexism are strongly characterised by anti-feminist rhetoric: 56.8% of men in their 20s are strongly opposed to feminism, with 29.8% rating their opposition on a scale from 1 to 12 as 12.
According to reports, unemployment has risen to 9.9%. As a result, men are feeling a sense of loss; their social status is threatened by economic uncertainty. Many blame women and policies aimed at giving women employment opportunities. Perhaps to a degree their grievances are justified.
South Korean women have a higher rate of university graduation and are generally able to begin work earlier than men (young men are conscripted into the military, delaying the start of their working lives). On the flip side, though nearly 70% of women aged between 25 and 34 are employed, many leave the workforce to have children because of social pressure and workplace policies that discriminate against working mothers.
Working women face substantial discrimination. For example, The Economist recently ranked South Korea as the worst performer among industrialised nations on the glass-ceiling index, which measures gender differences in education, wages and managerial positions. South Korea is ranked 127th out of 153 countries in terms of economic participation in the World Economic Forum’s gender gap report, a far cry from 96th in 2006. Additionally, there is a 35% gender pay gap with few women holding managerial or decision making positions. Women account for less than a fifth of South Korean national legislators and only 5.2% holding board member positions in publicly traded companies. And according to The World Bank, women hold only 17% of seats in South Korea’s parliament.
Violence against women and girls is a huge problem in South Korea, too. The rise of the #MeToo movement led to revelations about several high-profile cases. In 2020, Seoul mayor Park Won-soon died by suicide after his former secretary accused him of sexual harassment. Additionally, the government struggled to address problems with online gender violence, namely the non-consensual sharing of sexual images and molka – secretly filmed videos, sexual in nature, posted online. But Yoon did not take aim at men in his campaign: instead, he stated that harsher punishments should be enacted for false sexual harassment allegations. If he goes ahead with this policy it will almost certainly silence victims.
With Yoon at the helm, it appears that life for South Korea’s women and girls is about to get tougher.
About the author
Qhawezo Ayesha Fakude is a Junior Research Fellow at Africa Asia Dialogues (Afrasid). She holds a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She majored in politics and governance, anthropology and sociology.