Pledge to shutter gender ministry comes under fire
South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s decision to use the country’s gender wars as a campaign platform for his successful election earlier this month may have backfired.
Mr Yoon, who won an unprecedented tight March 9 election, had promised to abolish the government’s gender ministry, a pledge that helped engage young male voters spearheading a backlash against feminism in South Korea.
Fulfilling the pledge, however, requires approval from parliament, which is controlled by the Democrats, who currently oppose the idea. Opinion within his own People Power Party (PPP), meanwhile, is split amid concerns about further alienating women ahead of key local elections in June.
Cho Eun-hee, a newly elected female PPP lawmaker, is among those calling for the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family’s mandate to be boosted, via the creation of a new agency if necessary.
“Despite its numerous positive functions, the ministry has been criticised for fuelling gender conflicts ... but it’s not all or nothing, we need to gather wisdom to find a forward-looking alternative,” Ms Cho said.
The ministry has become a lightning rod for an increasingly acrimonious gender debate in the country of 52 million where several inequalities remain — the women’s labour market participation rate is below the OECD average and it has the worst gender pay gap in the same group.
However, in a post-pandemic cutthroat job market, some young men feel that attempts to redress the balance have gone too far.
Mandatory military service for young men — and not women — has come under the spotlight, while measures such as financial subsidies for women living alone have been dubbed “reverse discrimination”.
Mr Yoon, who also vowed to raise wages for military conscripts and scrap gender quotas for public sector jobs after he takes office in May, was backed by about 60% of male voters in their 20s.
On the flipside, just 34% of women in their 20s voted for Mr Yoon, defying preelection polls projecting much higher support among that demographic.
The Democratic Party has appointed as its new interim leader a 26-year-old feminist who has been a sharp critic of Mr Yoon’s policies.