Mutual Advantage-Disadvantage Theory

History and origins

The empirical basis of this frame is the 2019 SisaIN and Hankook Research in-depth survey of the 'men in their twenties phenomenon'. It was a 208-item web survey of 1,000 adults aged 19 and over (500 in their twenties) conducted 20–22 March 2019, and it was the first to put into data the 68.7% of men in their twenties who answered that male discrimination is serious and the 'male minority' self-perception. The survey captured that beyond 'reverse discrimination', a substantial share of young men were asserting male discrimination itself and rallying around a minority identity; the finding has been assessed as having defined the subsequent landscape of Korean gender debate.

The 2025 follow-up survey was commissioned by the Presidential Committee on National Cohesion (chair Lee Seok-yeon) and carried out by Hankook Research, covering 3,000 people: 1,000 men and women each in the 18–29, 30s and 40-and-over brackets. Results were announced on 17 December 2025 at the 2025 Generation and Gender National Cohesion Conference, and Cheon Gwan-yul led the analysis as a continuation of the 2019 analysis. Male-discrimination consciousness had spread beyond youth to men of the older generation (perception that male discrimination is serious rose from 42% in 2019 to 51% in 2025), and when the two strands of meaning within the phrase 'male discrimination' were separated and asked about for the first time, the position of most men turned out to be the moderate mutual advantage-disadvantage view rather than structural discrimination theory.

The authors stated that within the phrase 'male discrimination' a strong claim (structural male discrimination theory) and a moderate one (mutual advantage-disadvantage theory) are mixed together, and that nearly all previous analyses of male discrimination, including the 2019 series, failed to separate the two. The name and the distinction were thus first formalized in the 2025 analysis.

Definition and measurement

The frame is operationalized as selecting the statement 'men and women each have their own advantageous and disadvantageous domains'. In the 2025 survey this response came from 63% of men in their twenties, 62% of men in their thirties and 74% of men aged 40 and over. By contrast, 'men have it harder in most domains' drew 11% of all respondents and 23% of men in their twenties, a minority view.

Relations

The authors explained, on a six-group spectrum model, that apart from the 'strong identity group men', most men are moderate mutual advantage-disadvantage theorists, and proposed the frame politically as a line of 'radical centrism': isolate structural male discrimination theory and invite mutual advantage-disadvantage theory into the public sphere.

The frame also relates to how an issue is framed. When an issue is posed as a binary choice (zero-sum), the moderate majority view and the hardline minority view converge; when the problem is individualized and made non-zero-sum, the gender gap narrows and agreement becomes closer (for example, support for women with interrupted careers, and tougher punishment for false accusations).

Mutual advantage-disadvantage theory also enjoys broad sympathy among women. In the 2025 survey, among women of every generation the response 'men and women each have their own advantage-disadvantage domains' outnumbered 'women have it harder in most domains' (the gap narrows among younger women but never reverses).

At a cabinet meeting on 10 June 2025, President Lee Jae-myung said that 'looking at society as a whole, women are clearly the discriminated group', while instructing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to review research and measures on 'areas where men feel discriminated against'. Cheon Gwan-yul characterized this as the 'policymaker version of mutual advantage-disadvantage theory' and criticized the use of the word 'discrimination' for turning the problem into a zero-sum one.

Distinctions and criticism

Mutual advantage-disadvantage theory is distinguished from the strong claim of 'structural male discrimination theory', and also from a '5-to-5' reading asserting quantitative balance (which the authors explicitly disavow).

Shin Kyung-ah, a professor at Hallym University (Kyunghyang Shinmun, 28 December 2025), reviewing the National Cohesion Committee's presentation, criticized it for treating feminism as a 'conflict-inducing ideology' and for fostering the misunderstanding that Spain's far-right turn is feminism's fault. Citing the argument of Professor Shin Kwang-young, she defined the characteristic of the Korean far right as 'women's exclusion and male-victim discourse', pointing out that male-victim discourse is itself the problem.

Examples

In a 2021 Hankook Ilbo and Hankook Research survey, both men and women of the 2030 generation valued 'fair compensation', and support for assisting women with interrupted careers reached 75.9% of men in their twenties and 74.3% of men in their thirties, while 57.9% of women in their twenties and 66.7% of women in their thirties agreed with bonus points for military service. This was analyzed as an example showing that the 'intra-generational gender conflict frame' has been inflated for convenience.