| | | | |  | | By Catherine Kim | | 
Politico illustration/AP photo | Hi, Women Rule readers. I'm Catherine Kim, an assistant editor at POLITICO Magazine. I'm filling in for Katie this week with a dispatch from South Korea, a place that I call home. Got thoughts on Korean politics? BLACKPINK? The best naengmyeon place in Seoul? Email me at ckim@politico.com or dm me on Twitter . Thank you to Maya Parthasarathy for helping to put this newsletter together. Regardless of what you think of the verdict in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard case, one aspect of the trial isn't in dispute: Online commenters unleashed a tsunami of misogynistic attacks against Amber Heard. The cyber abuse Heard encountered from Depp fans, who mocked her accusations of domestic violence and went as far as sending death threats, may have shocked many in America. But that kind of treatment is eerily familiar to Korean women like me. Sexism online has reached an extreme in Korea, fueled by angry men in their 20s and 30s who are looking for a scapegoat for their misfortunes. And although women are fighting back, the young men are a powerful and vocal force in the country, with backing from the newly elected President Yoon Suk-yeol, who claims systematic gender inequality doesn't exist — even though Korea has the highest wage gap between men and women among OECD countries. Sexism has long been simmering under the surface of Korean society. "Feminist scholars and activists have been saying that misogyny permeates Korean society like the air, implying that misogyny and sexism have been naturalized and normalized," says Jinsook Kim, who has been researching online misogyny and feminist movements in Korea. But the tension boiled over in 2016, after a 34-year-old man murdered a 23-year-old woman, a stranger, simply because of her gender. The incident spurred a new anti-misogyny movement in the country. The #MeToo movement built upon that momentum in 2018, and nationwide rallies advocated for more policies to protect women from harassment. The backlash, though, was swift. Men's rights groups quickly denounced the new feminist movement as unfairly placing blame on all men and painted themselves as the ones truly disenfranchised. Now, there's a growing gender divide in the country, especially between young women, who are increasingly growing more vocal about their experiences with sexism, and young men, who have been the most extreme deniers of gender inequality. These young men have fueled the rise of Korea's conservative movement, as politicians have taken advantage of their frustration with a mandatory 18-month military service, economic instability and changing gender roles. They are now a vocal force in politics: Most recently, young men helped the People Power Party — the leading conservative group, which capitalized on the anti-feminism movement early on — win by a landslide in local elections. The gender gap in that election was stark: Women under 30 overwhelmingly voted for the progressive party, while men in the same age range voted conservative. Such anger toward women has dire consequences, especially online: In February, a livestreamer known as Jammi — her real name is Cho Jang-mi — committed suicide after facing insistent harassment following accusations that she was a feminist. And when Jeon Hyo-sung, a veteran K-pop star, participated in a campaign to promote dating violence awareness, she was bombarded with sexist insults. The assaults peaked when attackers hung a banner near a busy subway station that displayed her in provocative clothing in an attempt to humiliate her and paint her as a hypocrite. "The online medium promotes more extremist views, more kind of polarized views, because you can be anonymous," says Sharon Yoon, a Korean studies assistant professor at Notre Dame. "No one will hold you accountable. Things that you're afraid of saying out loud, you can say. And then this legitimizes people who might have felt a little shy about saying it." Such repeated harassment can ultimately stunt progress toward gender equality. Following years of open conflict, a growing number of young women are growing weary of the backlash that is to be expected when addressing sexism, even as they continue to vote for progressive causes. In a recent survey, 61.2 percent of college-aged women in Korea said they used to perceive feminism as favorable but now found it tiring. Meanwhile, 63.5 percent of college-aged men said they've always seen it as unfavorable. The big question is whether anything can be done to reverse the deteriorating situation. Addressing the sense of instability felt by Korean youth — caused by skyrocketing house prices, high youth unemployment and the rising cost of living — could help pacify the anger that has seized young men, says Yoon. That alone, however, will not be enough to eliminate misogyny, she says. Such policy efforts need to be coupled with education to help the nation acknowledge its deeply-rooted misogyny — or else women will always become a scapegoat when times are tough.
| | | | Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: As inflation rates soar and disruptions to the global supply chain persist, all eyes are on the nation's economic recovery. But getting back on track in an inclusive and sustainable way is no easy feat. POLITICO Focus connected with members of Women Rule: The Exchange to learn about the strategies and solutions that will power an economy that benefits all. Join the Conversation. | | | | | | | 
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson | "Abortion access could soon be decided by the states. Here's what the next governors say," by Zach Montellaro for POLITICO: "Washington won't determine the landscape if the Supreme Court upends the current national order on abortion — it will be up to each state and their governors and legislators to set abortion policy within their borders. "That has piled new policy pressure on this year's most competitive gubernatorial races , where most Republican and Democratic candidates have polar opposite views on abortion and the winners will have broad latitude to set policy in states where their party also controls the legislature. "POLITICO sent a five-question survey to leading gubernatorial candidates in seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — asking candidates to explain where they stand on one of the most contentious issues of the 2022 midterms. "Each state starts at a different point. States that have seen unified Republican control — like Georgia or Arizona — already have tight restrictions on abortion written into state law, which could take effect shortly after Roe is officially struck down. In Democratic-controlled Nevada, state law allows abortion procedures through 24 weeks of pregnancy — and that can only be changed by a voter referendum. "Would-be governors could have the biggest impact on abortion policy in states where the parties have split control of late. Some, including Michigan, have pre-Roe laws that either outright ban or severely limit abortion procedures if Roe is overturned. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sued to try to throw out the old law, which has been temporarily blocked as part of another lawsuit." Check out the story to see the candidates' responses. "The Supreme Court could end abortion in Michigan. The race is on to let voters have their say," by Alice Miranda Ollstein for POLITICO "Enough with Trumpism: Mass. Dems rally to Healey in governor's race," by Lisa Kashinsky and Madison Fernandez: "Massachusetts Democrats are facing their best prospects for retaking the governor's office in a decade, and they're not taking any chances. "Instead of a crowded primary dominated by liberal policy debates, party activists are overwhelmingly supporting state Attorney General Maura Healey. The progressive all but cleared the field for the open seat with a message that effectively says if it ain't broke, don't fix it. She holds commanding leads in fundraising and polling and secured the party's endorsement for governor at last weekend's state convention with a resounding 71 percent support from delegates. "It's not that activists on the left don't like what Healey's rival, Sonia Chang-Díaz — a progressive state senator championing causes from single-payer health care to debt-free public college — is selling. They do. "It's that Massachusetts Democrats, above all else, are wary of Republican rule from the executive suite. They're scarred by Donald Trump's years in the White House and are facing the prospect of a Republican nominee for governor endorsed by the former president. They just want someone who can win." "Lightfoot splashes into crowded Chicago mayoral field with reelection launch," by Shia Kapos for POLITICO
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AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite | "The Institutionalist," by Rebecca Traister in New York: "Feinstein's career in American politics, a series of historic firsts that began with her leading the Board of Supervisors, was born in the upheaval of the mid-20th century's struggles for greater civil rights. … "Since then, Feinstein has lost as much as she has won. She has lost two husbands to cancer, two colleagues to assassination, and tens of thousands of her city's residents to the AIDS epidemic. She served on the Board of Supervisors for eight tumultuous years, and she ran and lost two mayoral races before serving as mayor of San Francisco for nine years. She was considered and passed over as a vice-presidential candidate in 1984, lost a California gubernatorial election in 1990, then won six elections to the United States Senate, where she serves as the fifth-most-senior senator. "Feinstein is now both the definition of the American political Establishment and the personification of the inroads women have made over the past 50 years. Her career, launched in a moment of optimism about what women leaders could do for this country, offers a study in what the Democratic Party has not been able to do. … "As the storied career of one of the nation's longest-serving Democrats approaches its end, it's easy to wonder how the generation whose entry into politics was enabled by progressive reforms has allowed those victories to be taken away. And how a woman who began her career with the support of conservationist communities in San Francisco, and who staked her political identity on advancing women's rights, is now best known to young people as the senator who scolded environmental-activist kids in her office in 2019 and embraced Lindsey Graham after the 2020 confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett, a Supreme Court justice who appears to be the fifth and final vote to end the constitutional right to an abortion." "More women than ever own guns. Could that change gun laws?" by Anne Branigin for the Washington Post: "Tiffany Lognion went from being scared of guns to 'almost a gun enthusiast' in less than two years. After moving to her childhood home in Little Rock with her two children in 2016, the single mother was unsettled by changes in the neighborhood, she said. By 2020, alarmed by rising violent crime rates across the country, the protection Lognion had at home — her dog, a canister of mace, an alarm system — no longer felt like enough. "So she decided to buy a gun. In Arkansas, it wasn't necessary for her to get a concealed carry permit to buy a gun. But she wanted to make sure she could operate a gun safely before purchasing one, so she applied for the permit, which required her to complete a training class and pass a background check. After her training and a month of research into which gun would work best for her, Lognion bought her first gun in November 2020 from a sporting goods store: a Taurus G2C, a compact semiautomatic pistol that she heard was good for first-time gun owners. "Afterward, she immediately felt safer at home — and accomplished, Lognion said. She has since purchased a second gun and started taking her 13-year-old and 20-year-old to the gun range with her. Now, 'I have the skills, and the ability to protect my family,' she said. "Lognion is part of a growing population of women who have bought guns over the last two years, a spike that analysts say has been fueled by a growing sense of political and social upheaval since the beginning of the pandemic. A 2021 Harvard study found that women accounted for half of all gun purchases between 2019 and 2021 — and that new gun owners were more likely to be female. That is unprecedented, experts say." "The Girlbosses of Fertility," by Lindsay Gellman for the Cut: "Right after Madison turned 40, she and her husband began in vitro fertilization. Each round cost the couple roughly $7,000. When the first two rounds failed, they felt short on money and time. 'There was that financial burden and the emotional burden,' she says. 'And with that comes desperation to look at other options.' In the course of her online research, Madison, who asked that her real name be withheld, came across a fertility-focused podcast called the FU Project, hosted by Tasha Blasi, a Los Angeles–based former high-school science teacher and advertising-sales rep who details her personal struggles — and eventual successes — with in vitro fertilization. (FU stands for 'Fertilitites Unite,' Blasi-speak for the population of people hoping to conceive.) "Blasi, who has no medical training, launched a fertility-coaching practice in 2016; she is now one of the best-known coaches. Fertility coaching is a growing field in which practitioners offer advice, educational material, and emotional support to those experiencing difficulty conceiving or carrying a child. Sign up for one of Blasi's programs and she'll prep you for your appointment with your fertility doctor, urging you to push for particular blood tests or hormonal treatments. She'll also go over your lab work, sometimes suggesting dietary supplements to take (which she encourages you to buy through a private online 'dispensary'). She might point you toward a Blasi-approved fertility clinic, dietitian, or meditation program. Throughout, she'll message you with encouragement, referring to you, affectionately, as 'mama,' though you might not yet be one. 'Unless you were born with a compromised reproductive system,' writes Blasi on her website 'there is something else causing [infertility], and the sooner we can figure that out, the healthier you will be and your fertility will dramatically improve.' … "But while these services purport to address a gap in women's health care, they can just as likely exploit it — a pattern that emerged in my interviews with multiple women who hired, or seriously considered hiring, a coach. Fertility coaches typically shield themselves with a boilerplate: This isn't medical advice; there's no guarantee of success. But even more so than in other coaching subsectors, the desperation among clientele — and therefore the opportunities for gouging and potential harm — is intense. Even coaches without a large following can charge hundreds of dollars per session."
| | | | Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange:   In the Round: A conversation with today's leaders. | | | | | | | 
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| | | Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Ph.D., will be a senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women and Families. Previously, Gallagher Robbins worked in leadership roles at TIME'S UP, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Center for American Progress, and the National Women's Law Center. … Emily Norman is joining the Democratic Data Exchange as CEO. She previously led analytics and product for New York City's Covid response team. … Samantha Boyd has joined the comms team at Amazon. She most recently was comms director for the Washington bureau of Bloomberg News. (h/t Playbook) … Juana Summers has been named the newest host of NPR's "All Things Considered," replacing Audie Cornish. She's currently an NPR correspondent covering race, justice and politics, and is a POLITICO alum. Announcement … Afra Abdullah is joining POLITICO as a new associate audio producer of Audio, working mainly on our own "Playbook Deep Dive" podcast. She previously was a producer on a SiriusXM daily sports program. (h/t Playbook)
| | | | Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: As inflation rates soar and disruptions to the global supply chain persist, all eyes are on the nation's economic recovery. But getting back on track in an inclusive and sustainable way is no easy feat. Today, women are still finding themselves disproportionately affected by pervasive inequities when it comes to leadership, wages, and skills-building. Bridging these profound gender 'gaps' will be paramount to the country's ability to achieve sustained growth for the future. But where do we start?
POLITICO Focus sat down with members of Women Rule: The Exchange to answer this very question. Click here to see what leaders had to say about the strategies and solutions that will power an economy that benefits all. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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