Support for president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol seems to have split younger voters along gender lines. Some 58.7 percent of men in their 20s voted for Yoon but 58 percent of women in the age group voted for his ruling-party rival Lee Jae-myung in the presidential election last week.
Throughout the campaign, both candidates targeted young supporters who face pressing issues such as unemployment, skyrocketing housing prices, and rising inequality. They were seen as critical swing voters in the neck-and-neck race.
But instead of these issues, gender politics emerged as a flashpoint, with both candidates making campaign promises that were seen as targeting young men, and it was the People Power Party's policies that resonated more.
In the midst of economic stagnation, some young men say they feel left behind, especially since military service remains compulsory for men only. Unemployment among men in their 20s is much higher than for women, and girls are now more likely to be accepted at university.
"On YouTube and online communities that men are exposed to, people talk about how men are treated unequally, how the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is not doing its job and wasting money, how laws are created in favor of women," said one male voter in his 20s. "I think those kinds of sentiments are shared by many young men."
These young men found representation in Yoon's pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, for example. A survey in January found that 64 percent of men support the ministry's abolition, compared to 40 percent of women.
"The communities I'm part of, young men in their 20s, every time we'd talk about something related to politics, they mostly went for the PPP," the voter continued.
Yoon also suggested throughout the campaign that gender inequality is not in fact a problem in Korea, claiming in the last presidential debate that structural sexism no longer exists. The day before the election, the Washington Post published an interview in which Yoon identified as a feminist, but after a backlash he retracted the statement, blaming it on an "administrative error" in his written responses.
While some young men did not see Yoon as a perfect candidate, they saw a vote for him as a way to express their dissatisfaction with the establishment. "This is a judgment of Koreans who feel very frustrated with the policies of the current administration," said another male voter in his 20s. "We want a change of government."
Young women, on the other hand, said they leaned toward Lee not so much out of his policies but out of disappointment with the PPP.
One young woman said she was frustrated with the "explicit anti-feminism" espoused by Yoon and other members of the party such as PPP party leader Lee Jun-seok. "As a woman in my 20s, gender was a really important issue that swayed my vote, but I didn't talk about it with many people," she said. "I hesitated to express my support for Lee, especially to my friends who were male -- I was afraid they would think I'm this radical feminist that supports a party just for identity reasons."
Many young women said they believe that gender inequality is still an important issue in Korea, which has the biggest gender pay gap in the OECD and the worst "glass ceiling index" in the Economist rankings published recently. And while young women are more likely to be employed than their male counterparts, they also have a higher workforce dropout rate in their 30s and 40s.
"In Korea in the 21st century, there is still discrimination against women," said one young woman. "We are not at a point where we can abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family."
In the final stretch of his campaign, Lee pivoted his strategy to appeal more to young women. On March 3, in response to Yoon's comment about structural sexism, Lee wrote on Facebook, "I will tackle the systematic gender discrimination in society and provide a better life for women."
He also hosted a rally for women with speakers such as Park Ji-hyun, a young activist fighting online sex crimes, and promoted pledges such as strengthening protections for victims of sexual violence.
But these moves may have come too late. As both candidates tried to appeal to young men throughout the election, some young women were left feeling unheard. "I think the candidates were more geared towards attracting young men than women," said Lee Su-jin, who is in her 20s.
"Five years ago, President Moon Jae-in said, 'I am a feminist president, I will be a feminist president, so women should vote for me,'" said another. "This year it was the opposite."
Some were drawn to the minor Justice Party's Sim Sang-jung, a labor and women's rights activist. The largest portion of Sim's 800,000 votes -- more votes than the 260,000 votes that separated Yoon and Lee -- was women in their 20s. "She is the only one who talked about women's issues seriously," said one female voter.
"Sim's campaign was beautiful. I know she couldn't win. But if more people voted for her, that could show Koreans that there are more people supporting her," said Lee So-jeong, who is in her 30s. "Do I have to vote for a president for the next five years or for the next generation?"
In the end, Yoon won by less than one percentage point, the tightest margin in Korea's history. Many see Yoon's victory as a referendum on the Moon administration, especially its failure to control runaway housing prices and youth unemployment, rather than a ringing endorsement of the conservatives.
Surveys showed that the economy and housing were the top two issues for this year's voters, and voters were attracted by Yoon's promises to deregulate the economy and build 2.5 million new homes. "As many people say, we had to choose a lesser evil," said a woman in her 20s. "I think people in their 20s have lost hope that the Minjoo Party can lead the country to a better economy."
One young woman who was frustrated by Yoon's comments on gender said she is nonetheless hopeful about his economic policies. "I'm not satisfied with how the Minjoo Party has run the country for the last five years," she said. "The previous conservative administrations' economic policies were alright, and I'm expecting that the PPP will run the economy better."
After the close-fought race exposed deep divisions along gender and generational lines, she worries these will only deepen in the wake of the election.
"In past elections, voters split along region or generation. But in this presidential campaign, the candidates also used gender conflict to try to get votes," she said. "And now, even though the election is over, I worry that the issue is not going to be solved, that it's only going to worsen."
