How feminism grew to become a sizzling subject in South Korea’s presidential election

Surveys present a rising proportion of younger males are against feminism — and conservative candidate and political novice Yoon is trying to win their assist. He is promising to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Household, which he claims is unfair to males, and lift the penalty for falsely reporting intercourse crimes. CNN approached Yoon’s workplace for touch upon his gender insurance policies however didn’t obtain a response.

In the meantime, liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung of the incumbent Democratic Celebration has tried to strike a extra balanced tone. He says discrimination towards males is incorrect — an obvious nod to the views of anti-feminist males — however has additionally promised to shut the gender wage hole.

He says he’ll preserve the gender ministry — however change its Korean identify in order that it now not contains the phrase “ladies.” However in the previous few days of the election, he seems to have accepted that he will not win the younger male votes and is proactively courting on-line feminist communities.

In an announcement to CNN, Lee’s workplace mentioned he had created “many gender-related insurance policies” for ladies and men, together with a quota system for ladies to carry at the very least 30% for high-ranking public roles, advantages for brand spanking new moms and expanded assist for paternity depart.

The heated election marketing campaign has left ladies feeling as if the actual points dealing with them are getting used for political point-scoring. And a few fear that if Yoon wins the March 9 election, divisions between genders might widen even additional.

The rise of anti-feminists

For the reason that brutal 2016 homicide in Seoul’s fashionable Gangnam neighborhood of a younger girl focused for her gender, South Korea has confronted a reckoning over its attitudes towards ladies.

Activists pushed to deal with sexual harassment and widespread discrimination and located an ally in outgoing President Moon Jae-In, who vowed to “develop into a feminist president” earlier than he was elected in 2017.

Whereas in different nations, anti-feminists may be discounted by politicians, in South Korea, these males have made themselves a robust voter bloc.

Final April, Moon’s Democratic Celebration misplaced mayoral elections in each Seoul and its second largest metropolis Busan, with exit polls exhibiting younger males of their 20s had overwhelmingly shifted their vote to the conservative Individuals Energy Celebration.

“There’s a sense of exclusion amongst males,” mentioned the 36-year-old author Park Se-hwan, who identifies as anti-feminist. “It is now time for us to debate males in South Korea who compared have been largely ignored.” Park says he agrees with gender equality however says this sense of neglect has garnered “a common objection to feminism” amongst younger males.

In keeping with Youngmi Kim, a senior lecturer in Korean Research on the College of Edinburgh, social polarization and a scarcity of employment alternatives for younger individuals has led to males of their 20s and 30s changing into extra conservative.

Or, as Yun Ji-yeong, an affiliate professor in philosophy at Changwon Nationwide College, places it: “Many individuals are realizing that the (nation’s) scarce sources are being distributed very unequally.”

“Once they’re searching for the trigger, they level the finger on the ladies who’re in entrance of them.”

The wrestle dealing with feminists

To ladies, the fraught debate over gender is not simply leaving them feeling like a political punching bag — they are saying it is also plastering over the actual points they’re dealing with.

Yang Ji-hye, a youth rights activist, says most of the anti-feminist motion’s claims will not be supported by statistics — and she or he thinks the way in which gender is being talked about within the election is “absurd.”

“I am sick of those anti-feminist politics — it makes me overwhelmed simply to say how a lot ladies are being discriminated towards, when on the identical time they are saying there may be reverse discrimination (towards males),” she mentioned.

Author Park Received-ik says individuals with excessive views on either side are engaged in a “cultural battle.” He says it is tough for others to precise their opinions with out being threatened. “There is no effort of protecting sure guidelines pretty much as good residents or as civilized individuals, whether or not you are feminists or not,” he mentioned.

In keeping with the College of Edinburgh’s Kim, Korea nonetheless has a “lengthy journey forward” by way of gender equality.

Kim Ju-hee, who was on the protests, has felt discriminated towards for her gender — she’s been informed her seems to be had been a part of her job of being a nurse, and at residence her feminine relations are nonetheless anticipated eat at a small desk in the back of the home after ancestral rituals. She additionally feels pissed off about the way in which feminism has been used within the election.

“On this election, feminism will not be considered as a problem, however fairly a token,” mentioned Kim, 27. “I used to be very indignant that it was used as if it was going to get discarded afterward.”

Yun, from Changwon Nationwide College, says if Yoon turns into president she expects feminists to face a good higher problem for equality.

“For the reason that abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Household is likely one of the most essential guarantees, I feel that it’s going to in all probability be applied as a tangible motion first,” Yun mentioned.

“In that case, I’ve a priority that gender battle and girls’s human rights could go additional backward.”