How Reverse Discrimination Perception Shapes Workplace Gender Attitudes in South Korea

• In Event: Student Forum Open Topic Paper Session

Abstract

Although egalitarian gender beliefs have expanded across post-industrial societies, support for specific workplace gender equality practices has not kept pace. This divergence is increasingly visible among young men, who tend to hold egalitarian views while diverging on particular practices. The gap between general principle and specific support is well documented, but less is known about the conditions under which it widens. This study examines reverse discrimination perception (RDP), the view that men are unfairly disadvantaged by gender equality efforts, as one such condition. Using two waves of nationally representative data from the South Korea Gender Equality Survey (2016: n = 7,399; 2021: n = 8,028), this study applies OLS regression and comparative analysis with independent-sample z-tests to examine whether RDP moderates the association between egalitarian gender beliefs (EGB) and supportive attitudes toward workplace gender equality practices (WPA), and whether this moderation varies across groups and over time. The findings show that egalitarian beliefs predict more workplace practice support, but this association weakens at higher levels of RDP. The moderating pattern is stronger among young men aged 19–39 in 2021. Across 2016 and 2021, the overall moderating effect is comparable, but its concentration among young men emerged only in 2021, suggesting that this dynamic has stratified rather than uniformly intensified. These findings indicate that fairness concerns about male disadvantage can decouple egalitarian beliefs from support for concrete equality practices, and that the resulting dynamic is socially stratified and context-dependent rather than uniform.

Author

• Joy Han, Florida State University