[Born in '58, Ms. Sunja] 5060 Women Holding the Mic, Key Players in Next Year's Presidential Election

<Feature>Women Baby Boomer Report #2
From Passive Voters to Passionate Supporters
19th Presidential Election Turnout 79%, Ahead of Men

The above photo is not related to the article. / Photo by Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@

Ms. Sunja: A vague collection of images that can be thought of as a birth cohort of women born between 1955 and 1963, and one of the most common female names of the era. She is a fictional persona created to describe these women more vividly. Although from an earlier generation, the character name of the mother played by actress Youn Yuh-jung in the film "Minari" was also Kim Sunja.

[Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyun-jung (Sejong), Lee Hyun-joo, Son Sun-hee (Sejong)] In South Korean society, women of the baby boomer generation are no longer politically "quiet beings." They are not passive voters who simply follow their husbands or children; instead, they actively seek candidates who represent their voices and strongly support them. Holding a significant portion of voting rights, they can also take the lead as "key players" who will reshape the electoral landscape in future elections. Their role is expected to be prominent in the presidential election race seven months away.

This change is notably reflected in voter turnout. On the 18th, Asia Economy analyzed the voter turnout data from the 19th presidential election (May 2017) provided by the National Election Commission and found that the voter turnout among women in their 50s was 79.3%, surpassing the turnout of men in the same age group (77.9%). Among female voters, except for the first-time voters aged 19 (80.9%), the highest turnout rates were in their 60s (83.1%) and 50s (79.3%), respectively.

This result is even more pronounced when compared to the gender- and age-specific voter turnout in the 16th presidential election in 2002. At that time, the turnout for men in their 50s was 84.7%, and for women, it was 82.7%. Fifteen years later, as the baby boomer generation formed the majority of the 50s age group, female voter turnout surpassed that of men.

This trend was also confirmed in the recent 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election. Looking at the voter turnout by gender and age group in that election, men in their 70s had a turnout of 82.9%, much higher than women (74.7%), but the gap narrowed to 1.1 percentage points in the 60s, and in the 50s, women (62.5%) overtook men (60.2%).

In the presidential election seven months away, the political role of "Ms. Sunja" is expected to attract even more attention. The number of female baby boomer voters is approximately 3.64 million, exceeding the number of male voters (about 3.55 million), and accounts for over 8% of the total voters aged 18 and older (44.28 million). Especially since many of them are expected to be "swing voters" not heavily skewed toward any particular political faction, they are likely to become a key target of political courting in next year’s presidential election.

Yoon Tae-gon, head of the political analysis office at The Moa, said, "Middle-aged and older women are very sensitive to ‘life-related’ local issues such as real estate, education, and inflation, and tend to vote in a ‘trend-following’ manner. For political parties, they represent a core voter base that forms the foundation of regional organizational strength, making them extremely important."