2022 Year in Review

Elisha Watson
When South Korea’s new president,
Yoon Suk-yeol, was elected earlier this
year, it was seen as a warning to
women and female-presenting people
everywhere. Yoon rose to power from
the People Power Party where he
capitalised on the growing fear in the
country by appealing to the
grievances of young Korean men who
consider themselves anti-feminists.
Yoon appealed to these groups of
men who believe they are being
discriminated against and in turn
helped turn a fringe online
community into a damaging major
political force.
Yoon called for the Ministry of Gender
Equality and Family to be abolished,
and accused its officials of treating
men like “potential sex criminals.” He
has blamed the country’s low birth
rate on feminism — saying that
feminism prevents
healthy relationships between men
and women. He said that systemic
“structural discrimination based on
gender” doesn’t exist in South Korea
— despite Korean women being at or
near the bottom of the developed
world in a host of economic and social
indicators. Yoon became the
conservatives' "icon" because he was
"seen as the best person to beat the
Democratic Party candidate, despite
his lack of political leadership
experience," Gi-Wook Shin, a
sociology professor at Stanford, told
AFP.
Yoon’s plan to abolish the Gender
Equality Ministry could have a
disastrous impact on the country. The
regional and global implications of
this, particularly in the context of
women’s rights, include a dramatic
increase in sex crimes. Currently,
more than half of homicide victims in
South
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