There are three facts about South Korea that it would be wise to pay attention to.
First, the nation’s fertility rate has plummeted to below one child per woman, which means a nation of around 50 million people today will shrink by half in just a generation. Second, the current President, Yoon Suk Yeol, won election in 2022 on an explicitly anti-feminist agenda, with a promise to abolish the ministry for gender equality. Third, there is a massive political divide in the country between young men and young women.
These trends are inextricably related. Young men and young women do not see their interests as being aligned, but in conflict. As politics gets more divided between the sexes, maternity wards get quieter. And where South Korea leads, many fear that other advanced economies may follow. Similar political gaps are opening up in the U.S., for example.
The normal pattern is of left-right divides between generations, with younger voters typically more liberal than older ones. But in recent years a remarkable political chasm around the world has opened up between men and women within a generation, specifically Gen Z. Data from Gallup shows that in the U.S., women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male counterparts. This gender gap in ideology is five times wider than in 2000, and wider than at any previous point in polling history. There are similar gaps in Germany and the U.K. and much starker divides in South Korea and China.
This new trend has political scientists scratching their heads.
“This points to a real risk of fractious division among this coming generation of young—and the need to listen carefully to both,” says Professor Bobby Duffy of King’s College London, a leading expert on politics and generational change.
A shared trend is a turning away from feminism among young men, even as women turn more strongly toward it. A 2023 survey by Equimundo found that just 47% of men in the U.S. aged 18 to 23 agreed with…
