Abstracts Womens Studies

The Political Economy of the Marriage Market: Demographic Policies, Social Norms, and Women’s Empowerment in South Korea

by Soosun You

In this dissertation, I examine the politics of demography, marriage, and gender. I argue that demographic policies and social norms surrounding the family interact to cause backlash against women's empowerment, focusing on the case of South Korea. Each essay focuses on a cause of the backlash: demographic policies, norms, and gender-based comparisons in educational achievements. In the first essay, I trace the history of demographic politics in South Korea and show how policies implemented in the 20th century to modernize the country subsequently led to a sex imbalance in cohorts currently at what is considered prime marital age. By creating a marriage market squeeze, where there are more men than women seeking partners in the heterosexual marriage market, these demographic policies had the unintended consequence of prompting men in these cohorts to exhibit gender backlash. In the second essay, I argue that diverging preferences toward marriage along gender lines, which stem from different social norms and economic constraints that women and men face, are further exacerbating the marriage market squeeze. This causes young men to feel a status threat and react by calling for a reversal of women's empowerment outside the patriarchal bargain. Backlash is a political tool by which men seek to secure an advantageous position in the marriage market. The third essay explores the role of gendered competition in educational achievements. I find that the underperformance of men relative to women causes men to support a conservative political party they see as better representing men's interests. Overall, the three essays demonstrate how resistance against women's empowerment comes from changes surrounding family formation and how economic grievances can make some men more susceptible to backlash rhetoric that promises to improve their lot at the expense of women.