Among all countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), South Korea is at the bottom in gender income disparity rankings, with a whopping 31% difference in pay between men and women, despite its high GDP and standing as a developed country.
Recently, in South Korea, young feminists launched the 4B movement: bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae, bisekseu, meaning the refusal of (heterosexual) marriage, childbirth, romance, and sexual relationships.
The 4B movement has given young feminists the opportunity to envision the future that they had been discouraged from imagining.
The Movement has sent men into a tizzy, with President Yoon blaming feminist movements for South Korea’s low birth rate — the lowest in the world — rather than looking into the root reason why: men. Women no longer need to deal with abuse or the fear of it when breaking up with men if they never get into a relationship in the first place. They no longer feel the need to have children or have sex due to societal and male pressure once they decenter men in their lives.
What does this mean for not only South Korea but other societies? We spoke to Torunika Roy who is pursuing a PhD in Korean Studies at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Other stories we covered on this show:
