Age, Gender and One’s Perception of Discrimination Against Men Versus Women in Korea

The present research investigated whether and (if so) how one’s perception of gender discrimination would vary as a function of age and gender in Korea. Since gender-related conflicts have escalated in Korea especially among younger adults, we predicted that (1) there would be gender differences in one’s perception of gender discrimination in Korea and (2) such differences would be particularly large among younger adults. Consistent with the predictions, we found that Korean men underestimated discrimination against women and overestimated discrimination against men, relative to Korean women. Also, such tendency was more pronounced among younger men than among older men without significant differences in sexism between them. Moreover, young men claimed that men were at least as discriminated against as women in Korea unlike other groups who believed that discrimination against women was larger than discrimination against men. Our data also suggest that such perception of gender discrimination among younger Korean men is possibly due to their beliefs that social atmosphere in Korea is disadvantageous to their gender. We further showed that gender differences in perception of gender discrimination were associated with corresponding differences in emotional reactions (i.e., anger) to gender discrimination.