Women at the forefront of South Korea's martial law protests

As protesters confronted armed soldiers outside South Korea's National Assembly on the night of December 3, it was immediately apparent that something unexpected was taking place.

No sooner had President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared on television to declare martial law, than citizens began arriving and facing down the nation's military. South Korea has a long tradition of political protest turning violent. But this resistance was different.

Instead of bodies pushed up against riot shields and baton charges met with barrages of Molotov cocktails, the crowds waved glow sticks and sang K-pop favorites throughout the night. They kept singing with the dawn and replaced the lights with placards declaring their opposition to Yoon and a martial law declaration that has since seen him impeached and potentially facing treason charges.

Cameras panning across the protesting crowds gathering outside the parliament, the Constitutional Court where Yoon's case will be heard and the traditional protest location Gwanghwamun Square showed there were many women at the forefront.

Women on the front lines

Some media estimates suggest that as many as 40% of the demonstrators were women in the age group late teens to 40s. Analysts say this emerging generation of women may be ready to play a bigger part in setting the nation's agenda.

"Women have historically been outsiders in political discourse," admits Hyobin Lee, an adjunct professor of politics and ethics at Chungnam National University. "South Korea's proportion of female politicians is dismally low, with only 17.1% of National Assembly members women.

"This reflects the deeply entrenched exclusion of women from politics," she told DW. "There is even an old Korean saying, 'If a hen crows, the household will fall,' which implies that women should not voice opinions in political matters."

Lee said she believes that South Korean women have had enough of effectively being second-class citizens and that when conservative politicians "deliberately fuelled gender divisions for electoral gains," it played into the opposition Democratic Party's hands.

Women became more active in politics ahead of the April parliamentary elections in which Yoon's People Power Party fared badly, leaving him the head of a minority government. Their political participation appeared to carry over into the protests against martial law.

Yoon appeals to wave of anti-feminism

Conversely, it was younger men in their 20s and 30s who drove Yoon's May 2022 presidential victory. His anti-feminist stance was said to have appealed to men left alienated by the country's apparent embrace of gender equality — despite South Korea's poor track record on this. During the presidential campaign, Yoon pledged to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. In the 2022 election, 58% of women in their 20s voted for the Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung, while 58.7% of men in the same age group backed Yoon. Once elected, Yoon scrapped gender quotas.

Support for Yoon has now collapsed across all age groups, but resentment between the genders remains. "There was a clear gender gap when Yoon was elected and I think that gap remains now," said a female academic in Seoul who, because of the hostility that has been aimed at some women who have spoken out on the issue, asked not to be identified.

"Because of his policies, a lot of women — especially younger women — did not support Yoon in the presidential election, but there has been a dislike, almost a chasm between men and women in this age group for some years," she told DW.

"They do not like each other because culturally men have been more [publicly] active in South Korean society and have had to compete against other men for jobs, but now more women are entering the workforce, that competition has just become more intense," she said. "Many men are also resentful that they have to serve in the military and women do not have to."

Women find their voices

Meanwhile, professor Lee believes that the self-belief a new generation of South Korean women have discovered means they will not be willing to revert to conservatives' expectations in the future.

"This generation hasn't experienced protests like those in the 1980s," she said, referring to the bloody repression in the city of Gwangju of democracy protesters against the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. In the space of nine days in May 1980, an estimated 165 civilians were killed according to government figures, thousands were injured and at least 73 are still listed as missing.

"For this generation, protesting is new, and they have started to embrace it as a way of expressing their voices rather than viewing it as a 'struggle,"' said Lee. "It is becoming a tool for self-expression."

And she is confident the change will be enduring.

"I believe that while women may not have been at the forefront of political or social activities, they have always worked tirelessly for society and the nation from behind the scenes," she said. "Women have always contributed, even if they weren't visible.

"However, the younger generation is different," she said. "They grew up without experiencing overt gender discrimination and are accustomed to expressing themselves. If this generation continues to grow and assert their voices, I believe there is significant potential for greater female participation and representation."

Edited by Kate Martyr