Selma von den Hoff 

Yonsei GSIS Newsletter Junior Editor

As March 8th, International Women’s Day, passes the question of gender equality is moved to the forefront of many minds. In South Korea (from now Korea), the day was marked by rallies, awards and renewed political pledges, highlighting the persisting struggles women face. With this, slogans such as “Gender equality is the completion of democracy” and “Complete the revolution of light” were shouted referring to both equal rights and the impeachment rallies that had marked the country late 2024.

Despite more equal rates in employment Korea still faces a multitude of problems when it comes to gender equality, which include both wages but also cultural understanding of feminism. With this Korea has the widest gender equality gap of all OECD countries, with women earning around 70% of men’s wages on average but also is ranked last among the 29 OECD countries for the 12th consecutive year. 

This issue, however, is not just an economic one but also social. A study conducted by Ipsos and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London announced that the gender gap in perceptions regarding gender equality in Korea was 23% and that makes it the second largest among the 29 surveyed countries. Here, 65% of men agreed with “When it comes to giving women equal rights with men, things have gone far enough in my country”, whereas 42% of women agreed with it. Korean respondents had the highest rate disagreeing with the statement “I define myself as a feminist” at 74% with both only 13% of men and 28% women agreeing with the statement, placing Korea at the bottom of the 29 countries.  In addition, 36% of men and 52% agreed with the statement “Women won’t achieve equality with men in [Korea] unless there are more female leaders in business and government”. This gender conflict in perceptions is also highlighted in the 80% of Koreans that stated the gender conflict was serious in an earlier study Ipsos. 

These statistics, however, only show half the picture as besides them only 9% of Korean men agreed that “a wife should always obey her husband” and had a low rate agreeing with the statement “a husband should have the final word on important decisions made in his home” at 19%. But also 57 % said it posed no problem when women earn more than their husbands and only 15% saw an issue with men staying home to raise children.  All of this raises the question why this conflict exists so heavily in relation to feminism.

Soyoung Kim, here, states for the East Asia Forum that “systematic studies have found that, despite these [political ideologies] self-identifies inclinations, there is actually no meaningful difference in ideology or policy attitudes between genders”, which can be seen in the low rates of both women and men identifying themselves as feminists. The question, here, is to ask why feminism has a bad reputation in Korean and how it has manifested itself

The general definition of feminism according to the Oxford dictionary “the advocacy of women’s right on the basis of the equality of the sexes” and with these early Korean feminist movements followed this notion and instigated reforms. During the 1980s women’s organizations spoke out against domestic abuse, rape and sex traffic and had achievements in reforms. In the 2000s, the Hoju family register was abolished. Due to issues unique to Korea, such as the installation of spy cameras, the nth room scandal, exclusion of mandatory military service and gender-based hate crimes, online feminist movements increasingly adopted a more radical narrative that viewed all women as potential victims and all men as potential predators. This led to more misandrist and provocative content expressing extreme hate towards men, with some members going as far as stating they would abort male babies and outing gay men.

With this the feminist movement in Korea shifted the perceptions of its own core and looked at the world with a men-hating lens, fostering an anti-feminist sentiment in  young men and pushing them into the “manosphere” – online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny and opposition to feminism- and towards conservative voting. With this feminism in Korea obscured the original goal of gender equality into a conflict of genders, giving it the bad name it currently possesses in Korea. 

Although only a few online feminist communities adopt this level of extreme feminism, their visibility has been enough to overshadow those who don’t and in turn tarnish feminism's image. Alongside, this is not to say that the disparities that women in Korea experience do not exist, a 2024 Survey by the Carnegie California Gallup and Embrain Korea Surveys reveals that the low birth rate and the marriage market squeeze have led to a gender imbalance that in opposition to gender-equality, with unmarried men displaying a heightened hostility toward women. The task now is to find a way to bridge the existing conflict in a way where gender equality is not seen as a threat and would lead to long term stability and democracy.

References: 

Hankyoreh: https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1248652.html

IPSOS: https://www.ipsos.com/ko-kr/culture-wars-in-south-korea 

The Korea Times: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/society/20260305/korea-exhibits-2nd-largest-gender-divide-over-perceived-progress-in-equality-survey ; Image: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/society/20260308/korea-marks-intl-womens-day-with-rally-for-gender-equality

Yonsei Annals:  https://annals.yonsei.ac.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=10622

Carnegie Politika: https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/research/2025/04/the-fight-over-gender-equality-in-south-korea

East Asia Forum: https://eastasiaforum.org/2024/06/14/scrutinising-south-koreas-gender-divide-narrative/