KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

This study is designed to identify whether Korean men's mandatory military service strengthens or weakens gender roles that are formed in the gender socialization process, through which mechanism in the military service process such functions are activated, and the effects of the results on Korean men's life and gender relationships.

To this end, a survey of 1,500 Korean men aged 19~49 who finished, were yet to complete or were exempted from their compulsory military service was carried out. Focus group interviews (FGI) were also held with soldiers on service, university students, men who completed military service, and public officials who are in charge of national defense policy, totaling 28.

Research results imply that mandatory military service may lead to low self-esteem and dysfunctional masculinity. In particular, Korean men who experienced human rights-unfriendly and oppressive military culture were shown to have lower self-esteem, less conscious of gender equality, more likely to undergo men's gender role conflicts and masculine gender role stress, and exhibiting more hostile/benevolent sexism than those who were exposed to human rights-friendly and non-oppressive military culture. Moreover, human rights-unfriendly military culture is believed to bring about long-term side-effects including insensitivity to violence.

Korean men's military service was also revealed to result in negative gender role re-socialization, both at home and work. Those who served under active duty showed less participation in shopping and childcare than others who were yet to finish or were exempted from military service, or were subject to public service. Such a trend was also witnessed by the type of the military. Those who served in the Navy and Marines were less involved in housekeeping activities than those in the Army and Air Force.

At the workplace, those who served under active duty were more inclined to leave core and difficult tasks to men who finished mandatory military service and to assign non-core and minor business to women than others who were yet to complete or were exempted from military service, exposing more gender segregation. They also tended to be more favorable to men who fulfilled their military duties than women in terms of employment and promotion assessment. Such results hint that the aforementioned male-oriented military culture can have dysfunctional and negative effects on men's life, home and workplace, and thereby act as a barrier to women's entry into the workforce. This paper discusses the implications thereof and made the following policy suggestions to improve military culture that may negatively affect Korean men's life: 1) promote the participation of private experts to handle human rights issues in the military with more transparency; 2) introduce a military ombudsman system; and 3) establish a system to strengthen gender-equality and human rights education.