Exploring the Roots of Political Gender Inequality in South Korea and Japan

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

On gender equality indexes, Japan and South Korea frequently rank low. The 2022 World Economic Forum Gender Equality Index, for example, ranks South Korea 99th out of 146 countries, while Japan ranks 116th. Japan’s ranking is dead last in the East Asia region. A primary reason for their positions is their particularly low scores in political empowerment, which grades countries on the number of women in parliament or ministerial positions. This panel assesses this low level of representation from several different perspectives. In so doing, it also informs broader literatures on how factors such as clientelism and democratization may or may not impact women’s political representation.

Looking at representation in legislatures, Ono, Kasuya, and Miwa’s paper “Does the Block Vote system increase voting for women candidates?” examines whether Japan might have had greater representation of women if it had adopted a short-lived block voting system, used early on in Japan’s democratic transition. This voting system is used in countries such as Vietnam, so the question could have implications in other regions. Using a survey experiment, they find that the block vote actually led to lower levels of support for women relative to the SNTV system that was ultimately adopted.

Turning to behavior in legislatures, Go’s paper “Continuity and Change in Women’s Issue Evolution” asks whether democratization in South Korea meaningfully increased attention to women’s issues. She finds that while women’s issues received greater attention during the transition process, the rate of increase dissipated after consolidation.

Bureaucratic institutions are another important area for women’s representation. Lee and Schuler tackle this issue in South Korea, examining whether the persistence of clientelism in some ministries place additional barriers to women’s promotions. They test their theory using a survey of civil servants across a wide range of ministries.

Kweon and Kim look more to the future of gender equality, examining youth attitudes towards gender equality in South Korea. They use a series of survey experiments to assess whether youth attitudes are shifting more against gender equality. Finally, McClean and Shiraito examine differences in conjoint experiments and actual voting behavior in Japan.

Together, these papers should sharpen our understanding of the roots of political gender bias in South Korea and Japan, while informing larger theoretical questions related to gender in politics outside the region.

Sub Unit

• Division 31: Women and Politics Research

Individual Presentations

• Informal Networks and Promotion in Meritocratic Bureaucracies - Paul J. Schuler, University of Arizona; Don S. Lee, Sungkyunkwan University

• Continuity, Change in Women’s Issues: Legislative Debate in the Korean Assembly - Min Hee Go, Ewha Woman's University

• The Effect of Sex on Vote Choice in the Block Vote System in Japan - Yoshikuni Ono, Waseda University; Hirofumi Miwa, Gakushuin University; Yuko Kasuya, Keio University

• Comparing Candidate Survey Experiments with Real-World Voting Behavior - Charles T. McClean, Yale University; Yuki Shiraito, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Chair

• Paul J. Schuler University of Arizona

Discussants

• Charles T. McClean Yale University

• Marwa Shalaby University of Wisconsin-Madison