"Gender has emerged as a force of political polarization in South Korea in the recent decade and Yoojung’s thesis explores the reasons for its emergence," notes Gi-Wook Shin, Director, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea and Professor, Department of Sociology. "It is an important scholarly contribution, as in it, Yoojung illuminates how the case of South Korea challenges conventional scholarly wisdom, which posits that women are primarily responsible for gender gaps in electoral behavior as modernization has led to liberal attitudes among women. Yoojung instead investigates the male experience – ironically understudied in discussions on gender – and demonstrates that instead of women, in South Korea, it is men that drive the gender gap."

Lee contextualizes her thesis: "On May 10, 2022, Yoon Seok-yeol was inaugurated as the 20th president of South Korea. His victory, however, was hardly a landslide: the conservative candidate won by a mere margin of 0.73% after securing core support among young male voters. Meanwhile, most young female voters opted for the Democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung.

Many salient explanations about the origin of gender differences in voting currently exist in literature. The review of the literature suggests that variations in the electoral gender gap over time have been a direct product of changes in female political judgements. However, such an interpretation underplays the role and viewpoints of men.”

Lee further elaborates, “my thesis attends to the overlooked male experience. It uses the Korean General Social Survey (2003 – 2021) to determine whether 1) Korean men have become more conservative in their partisan preferences and 2) these right-leaning tendencies are correlated with higher unemployment. The results of my logistic regression ultimately demonstrated that the belief in an enduring modern gender gap by virtue of female progressivism is misplaced, since Korean men, markedly disaffected by their economic conditions, have been giving more support to the conservative parties. In light of these findings, it would certainly be interesting to look at whether unemployment is a salient source of gender cleavage in other countries."

Sponsored by the Korea Program and the Center for East Asian Studies, the writing prize recognizes and rewards outstanding examples of writing by Stanford students in an essay, term paper, or thesis produced during the current academic year in any discipline within the area of Korean studies, broadly defined. The competition is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Past Recipients:
11th Annual Prize (2022)
10th Annual Prize (2021)
9th Annual Prize (2020)
8th Annual Prize (2019)
7th Annual Prize (2018)
6th Annual Prize (2017)
5th Annual Prize (2016)
4th Annual Prize (2015)
3rd Annual Prize (2014)
2nd Annual Prize (2013)
1st Annual Prize (2012)