South Korea leans toward military conscription for women

Nearly 60% of South Koreans are now in favor of young women serving mandatory military service alongside their male counterparts, according to a recent survey, representing a significant shift in the long-held taboo against women being obliged to defend the nation.

Thousands of women already serve in the South Korean armed forces on a voluntary basis, but the debate over mandatory service has always been delicate.

Now, for a series of reasons that include a falling birth rate and shrinking number of recruits as well as an insistence that social equality means that women should also serve, the issue has re-emerged ahead of a reform of the national defense plan scheduled to be released this autumn.

Yet, there are still those who insist women should be kept away from the front lines and, instead, that South Korea should invest more in drones and other advanced technologies.

"South Korea's male-centered conscription system has long been closely connected to traditional gender roles," said Hyobin Lee, a professor at Sogang University in Seoul.

"Men were generally expected to protect the country and the family and to fight in wartime, while women were expected to take primary responsibility for childbirth, childcare and the household," she told DW.

A second factor is the intensifying debate about gender equality , a debate in large part driven by young men, she said.

"South Korean men generally perform their military service in their early 20s, which interrupts their education, employment or early career development," Lee said.