Yoon Suk-yeol’s victory in South Korea’s presidential election last week may have come at the cost of animating a once-overlooked voting bloc that’s aligned against him: young women.
The conservative president-elect’s effort to court "anti-feminist” voters, by vowing among other things to abolish the Gender Ministry, spurred young women to break heavily for his progressive opponent, Lee Jae-myung. Some 58% of woman younger than 30 voted for Lee, compared with 33.8% who backed Yoon, according to an exit poll conducted by the country’s three major broadcasters.
While Yoon ultimately edged out Lee in South Korea’s closest-ever presidential election, the "gender split” strategy left the electorate more sharply divided along gender lines. He may have also succeeded in mobilizing an increasingly vocal political demographic against him ahead of 2024 parliamentary elections that he’ll need to implement his agenda.
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