‘Anti-Feminist’ Strategy May Backfire on Next South Korea Leader
- Female voters in 20s turned out against ‘gender-split’ agenda
- Demographic could stymie Yoon Suk Yeol’s political agenda
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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.