"Highest Gender Conflict Awareness Just Before Male Enlistment and During Female University Years"

Ministry of Gender Equality and Family & Bank of Korea 'Youth Gender Conflict Analysis Report'
Negative Impact on Childbirth Among Female Samples

A survey revealed that among the 2030 generation, men waiting to enlist in the military and women who are students have the highest levels of 'gender conflict perception.' Women perceived gender conflict more strongly than men, and particularly among women, this perception was found to have a negative impact on their intention to have children.

According to the joint research report on ‘Economic Factors Analysis of Gender Conflict among Youth’ by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Bank of Korea, posted on the policy research service website on the 27th, the level of gender conflict perception among young men and women varied depending on their current activities.

The research team investigated gender conflict perception using a sample of 8,583 men and women aged 20 to 39 from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s ‘Youth Life Course and Future Outlook Survey (October?November 2020).’ A value of 1 was assigned to cases with the highest perception of gender conflict, and 0 to the opposite cases.

As a result, women (0.82) showed a higher level of gender conflict perception than men (0.39), people in their 20s (0.68) more than those in their 30s (0.50), singles (0.64) more than married individuals (0.46), and those without children (0.62) more than those with children (0.46) tended to have higher levels of gender conflict perception.

Among women, those in academic status such as university students (0.97) showed the highest level of gender conflict perception. This was followed by economic activity (0.81), not doing any work (0.75), and household labor (0.64). For men, the order was waiting for military enlistment (0.55), not doing any work (0.51), academic status (0.45), and economic activity (0.36).

Women’s perception of gender conflict negatively affected their intention to have children.

The level of gender conflict perception did not have a significant impact on individuals’ earned income, nor did it affect the probability of marriage. However, while it did not influence men’s intention to have children, it was confirmed to have a negative effect on women’s intention to have children.

The research team suggested, “Since the level of gender conflict perception is higher among women than men, and the negative effects of gender conflict perception are clearly evident in the female sample, it is necessary to first consider policies that can contribute to lowering the level of gender conflict perception among women.”