Women took the lead in the protests against South Korea’s last president. But the men running to replace him are saying little about the discrimination they face.
Young South Korean women are often dismissed by men as apolitical, but they were prominent in the movement to impeach former President Yoon Suk Yeol, whom they accused of encouraging contempt and even hatred for them. They were among the first to take to the streets to condemn Mr. Yoon’s short-lived imposition of martial law in December, enlivening large rallies with K-pop songs and glow sticks.
But as South Korea prepares to elect Mr. Yoon’s replacement on June 3, many women say their priorities — making the country safer and fairer for them — are taking a back seat, and not for the first time.
They endure some of the worst gender-based discrimination in the developed world, including lower pay and underrepresentation in management and politics, as well as rampant online sexual abuse that the law has done little to stop. But addressing such issues has become one of South Korea’s most politically delicate subjects.
With the economy in a slump and jobs scarce, many young men consider themselves victims of reverse discrimination and bristle at any hint of a feminist agenda in government. Mr. Yoon and his right-wing People Power Party leveraged such sentiments to win the young male vote, and the presidency, in 2022. During the campaign, he said there was no structural discrimination against women in South Korea.
Lee Jae-myung, who lost that election to Mr. Yoon by a razor-thin margin, has a substantial lead in the polls this time. But though he has recognized the “leading role” that young women played in Mr. Yoon’s ouster, Mr. Lee and his left-wing Democratic Party are being careful not to provoke male voters with messages that could be seen as feminist.
