‘Too strong for marriage?’ Horse sign women push back against old zodiac myth

Women born in the Year of the Horse portrayed as either stubborn or successful; experts say belief is groundless

A woman riding a horse (Getty Images Bank)

The Year of the Fire Horse has dawned.

The horse -- the seventh of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac -- is known for its agility, muscular strength and resilience, and symbolized courage and a pioneering spirit in ancient Korea.

Some of those beliefs persist today, in negative portrayals of women born in the Year of the Horse as too strong and lacking femininity, or positively depicting them as energetic and career-driven. Experts say such beliefs are groundless.

Strong or stubborn?

The superstition that women born in the Year of the Horse are “too strong” is most common among older generations, often fueling friction between older and younger Koreans.

Han So-young, 29, now 32 weeks pregnant and expecting her baby in February, told The Korea Herald that she has been stressed by her mother-in-law’s negative stereotypes about women born under the Horse sign.

“She keeps making baseless judgments about my baby, claiming she will be stubborn and difficult to deal with. It feels absurd that my baby is being judged before birth based solely on her zodiac sign,” she said.

“She even suggested scheduling an early delivery through a cesarean section to avoid the Horse sign."

The sign is not portrayed solely in negative terms. The Horse sign has also come to represent successful women, with its confident and bold traits now seen as an asset in their careers.

Yoon, a 35-year-old broadcast journalist based in Ulsan, said, “There are many positive traits associated with the Horse sign, such as being energetic and forward-looking. For women like me, who work in roles that involve meeting a lot of people, that image can be a real plus in both our careers and personal relationships.”

Notable female figures born under the Horse sign include figure skating icon Kim Yu-na and Park Sae-rom, a professor of industrial engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, who joined the board of Kakao in 2020 at age 30. Both were born in 1990.

Figure skating icon Kim Yu-na (left) and Park Sae-rom, a professor of industrial engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, were both born in 1990, the Year of the White Horse.

Groundless superstition

“There is no scientific basis for linking zodiac signs to personality, so they should not be blindly believed. But in a society like Korea, where fortunetelling and zodiac signs remain deeply embedded, I think the positive attributes associated with a zodiac sign can sometimes create a kind of synergy with a person’s real character or career," Cheon Jin-gi, chair of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee at the Korea Heritage Service, said in an interview with a local media outlet.

Experts, including Cheon, say the superstition that women born in the Year of the Horse are excessively strong-willed is a baseless belief rooted in remnants of Japan’s colonial era.

"They were once portrayed as having strong, assertive personalities and as being more likely to face hardship in life. These beliefs trace their roots to Japan’s traditional 'Hinoeuma' myth in the early 20th century, which regarded girls born in that year as unsuitable for marriage," he wrote in a report.

He noted that the ideas emerged from linking the horse’s energetic and active traits exclusively with masculinity and were later spread in Korea during the Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945.

Young Korean women in their 20s and 30s, born under the Horse sign, lament the fact that these stereotypes still linger today.

“Many older generations may say these things casually, but the times have changed too much for that. Women are more active in society than ever across all fields, with many now in leadership roles. It's hard to believe these rumors are still around,” said Choi Jae-yeon, a 35-year-old lecturer in vocal music at Seoul National University, who was born in 1990, the Year of the White Horse.