Economic Insecurity and Gendered Social Policy Attitudes: Evidence from S. Korea

• In Event: Poster Session: Assessing Opinions and Attitudes in Education Politics & Political Economy I
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Political Economy I

Abstract

Global economic transformations, such as free trade and technological advancement, produce 'losers' in the labor market. Although the disruptive consequences are unevenly distributed by gender, less is known about how gender identity affects policy support for compensating losers from global economic transformations. Studies have shown that vulnerabilities in the labor market lead to a demand for social protection against economic loss. While social identities such as race are known to strengthen or weaken these political demands by triggering concerns about social status, the role of gender has been less explored in the field yet. To fill this gap, we develop a theory that explains how gender inequality in the labor market results in gendered social policy preferences against economic disruptions brought on by globalization and automation. First, we argue that the relationship between economic insecurity in the labor market and demand for social protection is less salient among women because they are less likely to experience and perceive status loss driven by global economic transformations, especially automation. Second, owing to gender bias that devalues women's labor in the economy, we contend that women are penalized, resulting in lower support for compensation when ‘victims’ of free trade or automation are female. This study focuses on the case of South Korea, where the economy is highly exposed to both global economic transformations and faces the highest gender inequality among OECD countries. We test our theory using the Korean General Social Survey data and an original survey experiment. By shedding light on the intersection of gender and macroeconomic transformations, this paper shows how women and men respond to globalization and automation differently.

Authors

• Jaewook Lee, University of Milan

• Soohyun Cho, Bowdoin College