South Korean students rebel against coeducation in women's universities

Since Monday, November 11, 2024, some women's faculties in Seoul have been blocked by their students. They are protesting against the enrollment of men in their establishment, while the deans of these women's universities want them to become mixed.

It all started last week, when some of Seoul's women's universities revealed their spring admissions list. To the surprise of their students, men are enrolled in an establishment previously reserved for women. The dean of Dongdeok University justifies this shift towards mixed education by the fact that the Korean population is decreasing every year and that the enrollment of men in this faculty would make it possible to survive.

The South Korean students are, however, attached to this non-mixing, and assure that they have not been consulted for this decision which they consider important. Since Monday, November 11, 2024, students from Dongdeok, among others, have blocked and barricaded their university by demonstrating for a withdrawal of this regime change.

In South Korea, these women's universities are quite popular with female students, a legacy of the time when women did not have the right to education, around a hundred years ago. Foreign missionaries had created these private establishments to allow Korean women to rise in society. Since then, women have had access to education, but women's universities remain favored, on the one hand for their renowned training, but also because female students say they are more comfortable and safer than in mixed establishments. , particularly in the face of sexual harassment.

This crisis at the university is part of a broader war of the sexes within South Korean society. For several years now, South Korea has been truly divided between men and women. Very poor performer in terms of gender equality, the salary gap is the highest in the OECD countries, with almost 31% difference between men and women for the same position.

These inequalities crystallize the tensions that are found both in business and in politics. In South Korea, two thirds of men under 30 say they are openly anti-feminist. A situation which seems to pose more and more problems as both women and men no longer seem to want to live together.