[Lee Byung-jong] Gen Z’s growing gender gap

The upcoming US presidential election in November has a surprising degree of similarities with the South Korean presidential election in 2022. For starters, both elections feature candidates who are being tried for various criminal charges, facing prosecutors-turned-candidates on the other side. But more importantly, both elections highlight a remarkably sharp gender divide among young people, particularly Generation Z. In both countries, young men predominantly support conservative candidates, while young women tend to vote for liberal candidates.

According to a recent survey by The New York Times, US men aged 18-29 favor former President Donald Trump by 13 points, while US women in the same age group prefer Vice President Kamala Harris by 38 points -- a whopping 51-point difference. The gap is quite meaningful because the survey was done in six swing states that will likely determine the final outcome of the election. Although Trump of the conservative Republican Party is in general more popular among men and Harris of the liberal Democratic Party among women, the gender difference is not that striking among generations older than age 29.

Some US analysts believe the wide gender gap among Gen Z is a result of recent advances in women’s rights that lead young men to feel left out. As women’s positions rise continuously in every aspect of the American society, men, particularly young ones, face more difficulties in finding jobs or fulfilling their traditional responsibility of supporting a family. Increasingly feeling excluded socially and economically, young men are drawn to Trump who stresses a more conventional version of masculinity. His tough and rough demeanor captivates many men who miss conventional notions of male strength. Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) slogan is an extension of his masculinity to a national level where he projects the US as a strong superpower.

Conversely, young women are drawn by the vision of the Harris campaign, trying to empower women and other traditionally disadvantaged groups, such as minorities and LGBTQ+. The campaign’s pledge for the restoration of abortion rights, which were taken away by the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling, in particular galvanizes young women voters. Against the Republican Party’s attacks on the issues of immigration and inflation, the Democratic Party puts abortion and reproductive rights at the front and center of its campaign. For that reason, The New York Times calls the US election “a referendum on gender roles.”

The gender gap among young people, however, is not limited to the US. Especially after the middle of the 2010s when the #MeToo movement began to rock the whole world, the divide seems to have deepened. Yet the division was perhaps most profound in South Korea. According to the Financial Times, young Korean women were 30 points more progressive in 2020, while young Korean men were 20 points more conservative, for a startling 50-point gap. In that year, the difference was 30 points in the US and 25 points in the UK.

The wide division between genders among young Koreans no doubt materialized in its presidential election in 2022. Among the so-called "idaenam," men in their 20s, 58 percent voted for conservative candidate Yoon Suk Yeol, while 59 percent of "idaenyeo," women in their 20s, voted for liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung. Yoon’s promise of policies he thought would appeal directly to young men, such as his proposed dissolution of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, indeed attracted many young male voters. His signature gesture of an uppercut punch during his campaign was I believe emblematic of his particular kind of macho masculine appeal at the time. The gender gap in Korea continued to appear to a certain extent in the subsequent local and parliamentary elections.

Unfortunately, this pervasive gender divide is expected to worsen, according to some experts. One main reason is the fact that men and women are increasingly residing separately physically and are isolated from each other on the internet. As more people get married later, they are single for a longer period, resulting in the strengthening of their predisposed beliefs and values. Also, as people spend more time on the internet with fewer chances of interacting with people with different ideas, their belief systems further harden.

The gender divide is exacerbated by politicians who capitalize on it for their own political gains. In both Korea and the US, some politicians attempt to rally their support bases by attacking the other gender. For example, Trump’s running mate for vice president, JD Vance, has recently provoked and angered women and others by calling the US Democratic Party a party of "childless cat ladies."

Amid such politicized gender-based attacks, there could be a way out. For conservatives, instead of demanding an anachronistic, premodern, macho version of masculinity, they could envision a more evolved identity for men that befits the times. In that sense, Harris’ running mate for vice president, Tim Walz, presents a new masculine ideal. As a former military veteran and football coach who owns guns, Walz appears on one hand to be a typical macho man on the surface. But his support for women's reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights and same-sex marriage, along with gun control, free school meals, paid family leave, proactive climate change policies and other liberal values, presents an image of a more sophisticated, contemporary male identity. As a vice presidential candidate, Walz’s version of masculinity is a worthwhile political experiment in this time of polarized politics.

Lee Byung-jong

Lee Byung-jong is a former Seoul correspondent for Newsweek, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News. He is a professor in the School of Global Service at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.

By Korea Herald(khnews@heraldcorp.com)