부산대학교 도서관

The purpose of this study is to examine the gender egalitarianism among Korea men in their twenties. Growth of young men who advocate conservatism and male backlash is considered prominent issue not only in Korea but also in the United States and Europe. In order to examine the impact of dominant masculine norms and meritocracy on gender egalitarianism, this study classified gender egalitarianism into public (opportunity, policy, social structure)/private domain(sexual harassment) and equality of opportunity(opportunity)/strong gender egalitarianism (policy, social structure) based on its characteristics and perspective of equality. Results showed different effects of dominant masculine norms and meritocracy on different domains. Stronger conformity of the dominant masculine norms was associated with lower gender egalitarianism in opportunity, sexual harassment, and social structure but with higher gender egalitarianism in policy. One’s agreement with meritocracy was positively associated with gender egalitarianism in opportunity and sexual harassment but negatively associated with gender egalitarianism in policy and social structure. Furthermore, results showed an interaction effect of the dominant masculine norms and meritocracy in which a strong agreement with meritocracy was found to reduce the effect of the dominant masculine norms in opportunity, policy, and sexual harassment. Together, results suggest that meritocracy is a positive factor to explain the equal opportunity of gender egalitarianism but acts as a mechanism to resist attempts to correct structural inequality. This indicates that meritocracy can work with or replace dominant masculine norms in characterizing the angry 20s’ gender egalitarianism.