Policy Grievance and Gender Ideology Reconfiguration: Institutional Feedback and Backlash Among Young Adults in Korea

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Youth Politics (Table 3)

Abstract

This study examines whether grievance toward gender equality policy is associated with the configuration of gender ideology. Prior research has typically treated traditional gender ideology as a predictor of opposition to gender-equality policy. This study analyzes the reverse direction by examining whether perceived reverse discrimination predicts alignment with more conservative gender ideology profiles. Using data from the 2025 Youth General Social Survey, a survey of South Koreans aged 19–39 (N = 5,185), I conduct latent class analysis (LCA) to identify distinct configurations of gender ideology across three domains: division of labor, women’s employment, and perceptions of gender equality. A three-class model—egalitarian, ambivalent, and traditional—was selected based on model fit and theoretical interpretability. Multinomial logistic regression models assess whether perceived reverse discrimination predicts class assignment. Results show that higher levels of policy grievance are strongly associated with a lower likelihood of belonging to egalitarian or ambivalent classes relative to the traditional class. Predicted probabilities indicate substantial reallocation toward the traditional profile across grievance levels. Similar patterns are observed among men. While the cross-sectional data do not allow causal inference, the findings suggest that institutional grievance is closely linked to the configuration of gender ideology in contemporary South Korea.

Author

• Chae Yoon Chang, National Assembly Futures Institute