상세정보

Globally, South Korea has gained great recognition for its success story in terms of economic development and its technological contributions towards the 4th industrial revolution. However, ironically, despite its great achievements and economic success, it has one of the highest gender gaps among OECD countries. Gender inequality in South Korea is driven by several factors, including deeply rooted patriarchal ideologies, political partisan populism, and platform radicalism, with Korean women on the frontline of the struggle. Over the years, the government, private organizations, and feminist groups have made a strenuous effort to address the gender disparity in society through female support policies. However, the rise of anti-feminist sentiments in recent years is undermining the campaigns of these groups and organizations. Anti-feminists (mostly Korean young men) have been sabotaging the activities of women’s organizations on the basis of reverse sexism and unfairness. Previous studies attempt to analyze anti-feminism in Korea mainly focused on certain incidents (e.g., The Gangnam Station incident) arising from misogyny, reverse discrimination, or traditional Koran social structure, rather than supplementing or refuting individual scholars' interpretations based on the phenomenon of feminism. This study aims to investigate the factors driving anti-feminism in South Korea from the female perspective by proposing new model consisting of four important multicausal factors (economic, ideological, political, and technological). This study concludes that anti-feminism in South Korea has been strategically organized and it’s a sophisticated phenomenon that utilizes “violence” to maximize and reinforce power.

Acknowledgement	 (i)
Abstract (ii)
Table of Contents (iv)
List of Tables (vi)
List of Figure (vii)
1. Introduction (1)
1.1. Research background (1)
1.2. Research objective & questions (7)
2. Literature Review (8)
2.1. Feminism backlash in South Korea (8)
2.2. Male perception of sexism in South Korea (9)
2.3. Traditional factors causing gender inequality in South Korea (9)
2.3.1. Confucianism (9)
2.3.2. Conscription (11)
2.4. Other factors causing gender inequality in South Korea (11)
2.4.1. Masculinity norms and feminization of men in South Korea (11)
2.4.2. Male perception of sexism in South Korea	 (13)
3. Theoretical Framework (17)
3.1. New model of anti-feminism	(17)
3.1.1. Economic model	(17)
3.1.2. Ideological model (18)
3.1.3. Political model (19)
3.1.4. Technological model (21)
3.2. Research method (25)
3.3. Interview participants (26)
4. Empirical Results (27)
4.1. Characteristics of anti-feminism and its social issues (27)
4.2. Multi-causal factors driving anti-feminist movement (30)
4.2.1. Economical factor (30)
4.2.2. Ideological factor	(33)
4.2.3. Political factor (36)
4.2.4. Technological factor (38)
5. Implication	(41)
6. Conclusion	(43)
7. Reference (44)