Young South Korean women vote more to the left and are emerging as opinion leaders, including in recent days, when they took to the streets in force demanding the removal of the conservative President.
At the protests, in front of the National Assembly, mainly women were heard shouting, remembers Jung Hyun-joo. And while there, the Seoul National University professor couldn't help but think about how the female voice plays an increasingly central role in the contestation.
This presence, reflected in an interview with Lusa, is a recent phenomenon. Women “in their 20s and 30s have emerged as an important group of opinion leaders in all aspects of social life, including but not limited to political issues,” she said.
"In the last presidential elections, it was clear that young women gave overwhelming support to the progressive party [Partido Democracia], in contrast to their male counterparts, who emerged as a new conservative group", he explains.
In those elections, in 2022, 58.7% of men aged between 18 and 29 chose Yoon Suk-yeol, current President, second only to the oldest age group (over 60).
Women under 30 were the ones who least supported the conservative leader among all the groups analyzed - just 34%, according to exit polls.
Kim, 22, and Na, 21, are humanities students at Dankooku University outside Seoul and participated in the protests.
"There are so many women here because the men support the People Power Party [PPP]," says Kim. "The PPP has long been the party of the strongest [men] and it seems that women, the minority, raise their voices more," says Na, who also prefers not to be identified by her full name.
In the early hours before the vote on Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment motion - which imposed martial law a week ago, suspending it a few hours later - a group of people stood guarding the gates of the National Assembly. These night watchmen, says Chan Mi, another protester, were mainly young women.
"Korean women, whatever their age, have always participated during national crises in protests as much as men - and now more than men, I think. But the media has always underrepresented them and history has not given them fair credit", he analyzes.
But specialist Jung Hyun-joo, linked to gender studies, considers that there was a recent moment that led to the "political awakening" of younger women: a femicide, in 2016, in a public bathroom at a karaoke bar in Seoul. Kim Seong-min, a 34-year-old man, stabbed to death a woman he did not know.
Teenagers, the group most affected by the event, "are now young adults", notes Jung.
"Stimulated by Korea's rapid development and highly educated, but faced with ancient patriarchal traditions that still exist in many sectors of Korean society, young women in their 20s and 30s have a different energy and political sensitivity than those older generations and male peers", he contextualizes.
Another episode caused this political gap between younger men and women, suggests Kim Hun-joon, a political scientist at Korea University. As part of the campaign strategy, in 2022, Yoon announced, "one day, out of nowhere", the intention to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
"It was a polarizing strategy, he wanted the support of young male voters and so he made it a fundamental issue," he recalls.
The anti-feminist struggle has been gaining ground under the current President. Kim, a researcher in the field of Human Rights, considers that young conservatives feel that "they have had unequal treatment socially and in other areas in relation to women".
Rhee Jane, 22, active in recent protests, argues that younger women are the ones taking to the streets the most. Before "they didn't pay much attention to them", but in this pro-destitution movement, "they have been recognized, people are listening", says the Anthropology student.
Chan Mi remembers other times to explain female mobilization. "We know that women, especially young women, are always the most vulnerable group when the country becomes unstable. Taking into account the history of Korea, women are the first to be fired when there is a shock in the economy," he says.
The 30-year-old also says that the female population is also the "first target of crime when security is threatened"
"Women's freedom is the first to be oppressed in times of dictatorship. That's why women act", he emphasizes.
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