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Los Angeles Times
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Why South Korean young men and women are more politically divided than ever
SEOUL — It's a worldwide shift that has taken political scientists and sociologists by surprise: the growing ideological divide between young men and women. In the recent U.S. presidential election, President Trump won 56% of the vote among men ages 18 to 29, according to an analysis from Tufts University's Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In Germany, young men are twice as likely as young women to support the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, according to the Pew Research Center. Last year's European Parliament elections showed a similar trend. According to the European Policy Center, in Portugal, Denmark and Croatia, more than four young men voted for far-right candidates for every young woman who did the same. But few countries exemplify the trend more than South Korea, where a recent presidential election showed just how polarized its youth has become. In South Korea, 74.1% of men in their 20s and 60.3% of men in their 30s voted for one of the two conservative candidates compared with 35.6% and 40.5% of their female counterparts, respectively. Experts say the so-called 2030 male (men in their 20s and 30s) phenomenon, which emerged alongside the mainstreaming of gender equality discourse in South Korea over the last decade, has defied traditional left-right taxonomies. The '2030 men are difficult to define under standard electoral theory frameworks,' said Kim Yeun-sook, a political scientist at Seoul National University's Institute of Korean Political Studies. Having come of age in a world with radically different social contracts than those of their parents, right-leaning 2030 male voters are less likely to focus on North Korea — a defining preoccupation for older conservatives — than on feminism, which for them has become a dirty word that conjures 'freeloading' women trying to take more than they are owed. The men have taken umbrage with visual symbols or hand gestures — such as a pinched forefinger and thumb — that they argue are anti-male dog whistles used by feminists, in some cases succeeding in getting companies to discontinue marketing campaigns featuring such offending content. In the 2022 presidential election, it was men in their 20s and 30s who helped Yoon Suk Yeol — the conservative candidate who claimed that structural sexism no longer existed — clinch a razor-thin victory over his liberal opponent, Lee Jae-myung, who was elected president in June. This perception that men — not women — are the true victims of gender discrimination in contemporary society is a defining belief for many young South Korean men, says Chun Gwan-yul, a data journalist and the author of '20-something Male,' a book about the phenomenon that draws on extensive original polling of young South Koreans. Although male backlash to contemporary feminism is the most visible aspect of the phenomenon, Kim Chang-hwan, a sociologist at the University of Kansas, says that its roots go back to socioeconomic changes that began much earlier. Among them was a series of government policies three decades earlier that led to a surge in both male and female college enrollment, which soared from around 30% of the general population in 1990 to 75% in 2024. Add to that the increasingly long-term participation of women in the workforce, Kim said, and 'the supply of educated labor has ended up outpacing economic growth.' 'The young men of today are now feeling like they are having to compete five times harder than the previous generation,' he said. (Despite the fact that gender inequality in South Korea's job market is among the worst in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with women making on average around 65% of their male counterparts and far more likely to be precariously employed, such wage gaps tend to be less prominent for earners in their 20s.) And although most research has shown that the negative effect of South Korea's male-only compulsory military service — which lasts up to 21 months — on wages and employment is minimal, anxieties about getting a later start than women in a hypercompetitive job market have also contributed to young South Korean men feeling that they are getting a raw deal. Chun, the data journalist, points out that the mass entry of women into higher education also led to another tectonic shift being felt by the current crop of young men: the rapid collapse of traditional marriage dynamics. 'Women have been doing the math and are increasingly concluding marriage is a net loss for them,' he said. 'South Korea transformed from a society where marriage was universal into a marriage-is-optional one in an incredibly short time frame, especially compared to many Western countries where those changes played out over 60 or 70 years.' In 2000, just 19% of South Koreans between the ages of 30 and 34 were unmarried, but today that number is 56%, according to government data. Over a third of women between 25 and 49 years old now say they don't ever want to get married, compared with 13% of men, according to a government survey last year. One in 4 men will now remain unmarried in their 40s. Chun notes that the mismatch in the marriage landscape has bred in many the misogynistic resentment associated with incels, a term for men who identify as involuntarily celibate. A common refrain among young conservative men is the swearing-off of South Korean women, who are often cast as 'kimchi women' — gold diggers who are unwilling to pull their weight while demanding too much of men. 'Do you need to only date Korean women just because you're Korean? No,' said Chul Gu, an online personality popular among young men in a recent stream. 'There are Thai women, Russian women, women of all nationalities. There is no need to suffer the stress of dating a Korean kimchi woman.' Resentment toward South Korean women, Chun says, is inseparable from the generational animus that feeds it. 'In the worldview of young South Korean men, they aren't just fighting women, they are fighting the older generation that is siding with those women,' he said. 'It's essentially an anti-establishment ethos.' The '586 generation,' as they are commonly called, are South Koreans in their 50s or 60s who came of age during the high-growth, authoritarian period of the 1980s. Associated with the pro-democracy movements of the time, the 586 generation is one of the most liberal and pro-gender equality demographics in South Korea — and one whose members built much of their wealth through cheap real estate, an avenue no longer available for the majority of young South Koreans accustomed to seeing housing prices in Seoul double in as little as four years. 'Young South Koreans are seeing those homes become worth millions,' Chun said. 'Meanwhile, South Korea's birth rate is falling and life expectancy is rising to 80 or 90, so many young voters are thinking, 'We're going to have to be responsible for them for the next 40 to 50 years.'' Among the candidates in last month's presidential election, it was Lee Jun-seok, a 40-year-old third-party conservative candidate, who most aggressively targeted these tensions. During his campaign, Lee promised to segregate South Korea's fast-depleting national pension by age, a move he said would relieve younger South Koreans of the burden of subsidizing the older generation's retirement. Although he finished with just 8% of the total vote, he won the largest share — 37.2% — of the 20-something male vote, and 25.8% from men in their 30s. 'South Korea is very much locked into a two-party system where it is generally rare to see a third party candidate make much of a difference,' Kim, the political scientist, said. 'I think there's a lot of negative polarization at play — an expression of defeatism or disenfranchisement at the fact that status quo politicians aren't addressing young men's problems.' Data show that disillusionment with democracy too runs deep. According to a recent survey of 1,514 South Koreans by the East Asia Institute, a Seoul-based think tank, just 62.6% of South Korean men between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that democracy is the best political system — the lowest percentage in any age and gender group — with nearly a quarter believing that a dictatorship can sometimes be more preferable. Whether the rightward drift of young South Korean men is a temporary deviation or a more serious forecast for South Korea's democracy is still an open question, according to Kim. 'But now is the time to act,' she said. 'There absolutely needs to be a political response to the younger generations' frustrations.'
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Michigan's young Trump voters stand by their man
In January, Donald Trump became the oldest man ever inaugurated president and he owed his comeback win in part, to young voters. Kamala Harris still won a majority of voters ages 18-29, but Trump narrowed his loss among young women from 2020 and won a majority of young men, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. One hundred days into Trump's second term, young men who voted for him seem happy with his performance, despite some hiccups. "I'd give him an A-minus," said Evan Hubbs, 20, of Birmingham, who cast his first presidential vote in November for Trump. "I think it's going pretty good overall." Hubbs is studying political science at Iowa State University. He said the reduction in border crossings from Mexico and the passage of the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain migrants arrested for crimes, count as wins for Trump. He acknowledged that the economy has been volatile in the wake of Trump's tariffs, but he's convinced things will settle down soon. "The stock market has been a little bit of a roller coaster, but I think there is a solid chance that we finish out the rest of this quarter on a high note and I think that it's bigger than just the stock market," he said. Hubbs said Trump has not been able to unify the country but gives him credit for trying. He said he would like to see Trump cooperate more with America's allies abroad. "There's certain things that we need to cooperate on, and we need to work with our partners," he said. Despite his age, Krish Mathrani, 18, of Troy, has been politically active in conservative politics for years. He parlayed that activism into getting elected youth chair of the Michigan Republican Party at the state party convention in February. He also cast his first presidential vote for Trump in November and, like Hubbs, he gives Trump an A-minus. "I' think he is following through with his promises," Mathrani said. "He said he would do the reciprocal tariffs thing, he did just that. He said he would do his economic policy, his executive orders are exactly what he promised, with boys in women's locker rooms, with the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), ending DEI, with everything. It has been exactly what he promised." Mathrani also credits Trump for stricter enforcement at the Southern border. Mathrani's parents and grandparents all immigrated to the U.S. legally from India in the early 2000s. "I know how long they had to wait to come here. I know the process, and I know how much they appreciate it," Mathrani said. "When my family saw the amount of people who were coming here the wrong way, the illegal way, we felt mistreated. We felt it was unfair, which is why that is a big issue close to my heart." Mathrani acknowledged that the stock market has been rocky, but he's convinced it will turn for the better "The majority of Americans, they understand that this is a short term thing, and President Trump knows how to bring the economy back," Mathrani said. "He did that in 2016 when we're doing amazing before COVID happened." Not all young voters are happy with Trump. Loren Maxwell, 19, of West Bloomfield, is studying early childhood education at Oakland Community College. She said she voted for Trump in November, but acknowledges she had not researched the candidates or the parties well at the time. "I felt it was a little more obvious to see what Trump had in mind at the time, and the promises he was making seemed really great," she said. "But I feel like I should have done more research because, it's really hard to see where it's going. The future is really unsure." More: Whitmer, Nessel have chosen different rallying cries since Trump took office Maxwell said that Trump talked a lot about the economy and she thought there would be more support for people who lost their jobs during COVID-19 or were struggling to find work. As someone who hopes to teach one day, Maxwell said she doesn't like Trump's efforts to close down the Department of Education. She also has been disappointed with the tariffs because she shops online frequently for things like clothes and CDs. "I purchase a lot of things online from different countries," she said. "And this tariff is, well, I see a lot of websites talking about having to not ship here because it's too much. Like no one's gonna make a profit off of it, because the fees are gonna be so high." Maxwell wouldn't say that she regretted her vote, but said that she wishes she'd done more research before voting. She still hopes things change for the better. "I'm keeping an open mind, but I am leaning toward a little bit of disappointment," she said. "But only the future can tell where it's all gonna end up." Tyler Soncrainte, 25, of Waterford, has made up his mind. He's happy he voted for Trump. "I've really enjoyed seeing him develop DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and show how much our federal government is continuously wasting our tax dollars every year," Soncrainte said. "I think that he has a pretty strategic approach to most of what he does and that makes sense." Like Mathrani, Soncrainte has been an active Republican for years and even ran unsuccessfully for a township office in Waterford. He said that he's happy to see stricter enforcement along the Southern border and he's willing to be patient through the stock market swings. He would like to see more progress on foreign affairs. "I was hoping that we would have more resolution with the conflict in the Middle East, as well as with Russia and Ukraine," Soncrainte said. "Unfortunately, we haven't solved those yet. I think he's making progress toward it, but I would like to see more peace talks and whatnot with the rest of the world." More: Details released about Trump's 100-days rally in Macomb County on April 29 Soncrainte said Trump hasn't been able to make much progress unifying the country, but he blames much of that on a certain percentage of the population that will never accept Trump. Overall, Soncrainte said he is happy with his vote and with what he has seen so far from Trump. "I love having a president where his initiatives feel as if he is putting America first ... you know, reviving the American dream," he said. "Sometimes you'll hear stuff that isn't so pretty about him, but he's a complete changeup of what we had the last four years, and that's exactly what I voted for." Contact John Wisely: jwisely@ On X: @jwisely This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Young Trump voters in Michigan stand by their man 100 days in
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gen Z Has a Complex Relationship with Democracy, Survey Reveals
A nationally representative poll designed to gauge Gen Z's attitude toward democracy contradicts a popularly held belief that the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012 doesn't care about it at all. While a majority agree on democracy's importance, many feel unsure how to effectively participate in it or preserve it. For some, the frustration has taken a concerning turn: 11% said political violence is sometimes necessary to achieve progress. And while the poll's creators expected to find significant variance based on race, gender and location — rural versus urban, for example — other factors, including socioeconomic status and access to civics education, played a major role in shaping young peoples' beliefs. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter For example, those who received less support for their civic development 'are less committed to a democracy that they may not feel prepared to participate in or feel they are a part of,' the report notes. 'They're not completely disaffected,' said research specialist Deborah Apau of Gen Z. 'The problem is that while they do believe in democracy, they don't feel that democracy as they experience it today is delivering for them. It's that disconnection that's really causing the issue.' The poll was conducted between Nov. 14-26, 2024, just after a historically contentious presidential election in which the youth vote was heavily scrutinized. The results were released earlier this month by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University and Protect Democracy, a nonprofit 'dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom.' The polling firm Ipsos collected the data. The findings might help explain Donald Trump's popularity among young voters in his third run: nearly half under 30 supported the Republican nominee, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters. While he had massive appeal for young white men, he also fared well with young Latino men, who split their vote between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. Related The CIRCLE and Protect Democracy poll, which measured Gen Z's beliefs and perspectives on democracy, civil rights and political violence, along with their support for bipartisan cooperation and feelings toward opposing political groups, revealed that young people crave bipartisanship and compromise. Nearly 4 out of 5 say leaders of opposing parties should work together and 65% believe people with deeply opposing political views can find common ground. Likewise, only 17% agree that those who hold political opinions different from their own are 'wrong.' Nearly three quarters of its 1,286 respondents said elected leaders should not be able to go above the law. The poll's findings are landing at a time when many see the country as on the verge of a constitutional crisis, with Trump pushing the bounds of executive power and at least one federal court judge finding grounds last week to hold his administration in contempt. In an effort to engage young people, the organizations recommend they be brought into the democratic process, that the nation invest in civic learning, and that those wishing for Gen Z to boost their participation acknowledge their diversity and create opportunities for collaboration and collective action that leverages their strengths. Related The poll notes that young people's lives were shaped by economic instability, history-making political shifts, a proliferation of school shootings, the rise of social media and COVID. A full 81% of respondents acknowledged the value and meaning of free and fair elections. The survey found, too, that 63% had a 'passive appreciation' of democracy, meaning they trust government institutions, have a high regard for democratic principles, and reject authoritarianism and political violence. But, the study's authors note, their satisfaction and trust may be leading to complacency as this group generally does not take political action outside of voting. Thirty-one percent had a 'dismissive detachment' from democracy: They didn't express through the survey that they value core democratic principles and processes. They have low confidence in the system as it is working now and demonstrate higher support for authoritarian governance compared to their peers in other categories. Pollsters note this group has 'the lowest levels of media literacy, suggesting that they are often consuming political information without the ability or willingness to confirm its source, truthfulness, or intent.' They also reported little confidence in their ability to be effective political actors. Seven percent of Gen Z participants had a 'hostile dissatisfaction' with democracy. While they value its core principles, they are 'highly displeased' with it as they are experiencing it today, authors note. Despite — or perhaps because of — their frustration, they are the most politically active within this age group and express the highest support for political violence. The report notes, too, they are highly polarized 'and their frustrations with the current system run so deep that they are more willing to consider extreme measures to achieve political goals.' They are by far the most likely to participate in other forms of civic action like volunteering or taking on leadership roles and are willing to fight for the democracy they want. The report notes they score highest of all in media literacy, 'which suggests they may be more informed about the state of democracy than some of their peers.' Related They are also more ideologically liberal than those in the other two groups and are more likely to be queer compared to the passive appreciation cohort. 'As knowledgeable actors with a respect for democratic values and a willingness to actively participate through both traditional and non-traditional forms of civic action, these youth who feel a hostile dissatisfaction with our democracy are also a powerful force for reshaping it,' the report observes. Sara Suzuki, senior researcher at CIRCLE, was surprised by the size of the first group defined by its 'passive appreciation.' While she's concerned about their relative inaction, she sees opportunity for them 'to do something about the problems they see instead of sort of letting it happen.' Apau, of Protect Democracy, said even the group that supports violence as a means of change still believes in democratic ideals — including its ability to function well. 'They feel they've exhausted their options in terms of participating in things like voting and protests and they're not able to secure the responses that they want,' she said. Apau said it's important to understand Gen Z and give them the tools they need, 'so they're resourced, they have the knowledge they need to move throughout the world later in life and in adulthood — and understand how systems work.'
