A politician in South Korea is being criticised for making dangerous and unsubstantiated comments after linking a rise in male suicides to the increasingly “dominant” role of women in society.
In a report, Seoul City councillor Kim Ki-duck argued women’s increased participation in the workforce over the years had made it harder for men to get jobs and to find women who wanted to marry them.
He said the country had recently “begun to change into a female-dominant society” and that this might "partly be responsible for an increase in male suicide attempts”.
South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates among the world’s rich countries but also has one of the worst records on gender equality.
Councillor Kim’s comments have been criticised as the latest in a series of out-of-touch remarks made by male politicians.
I’d like to remind everyone who’s coming here for the men vs women fight that not so long ago only men worked and they were still able to afford everything for their family. Now both work and can’t afford the same as men alone did then. We should be fighting such that either man or woman work alone and can still afford a home, not fight between us.
Men vs women, left vs right politics, black vs white, Christian vs Islamic,… we’re too blind with these petty fights among ourselves to see that we are all alike and there’s a different third party that is playing us like a fiddle.