Dogs Replace Children As South Korea’s Women Reject Men

All over the West birth rates are plunging well below the 2.1 children per woman to maintain the existing population size. Everyone knows that the long-term economic and social implications are potentially disastrous in a society increasingly burdened by supporting those in advanced old age. But if you thought we were in trouble, South Korea is staring at a precipitous and potentially terminal catastrophe in face, says the Daily Mail. It seems young women are rejecting both sex and marriage in their droves, often inspired by influential young female role models like the pop star Soyou:

Behind the nation’s glossy image – with its famous beauty culture, films and music – lie sharp divisions and dissatisfaction for many women, both at home and in the workplace, over some of the most stark gender inequalities of any developed country.

The disgruntlement has sparked relationship boycott groups with thousands of women vowing to stay single forever – symbolised by the 4B movement, whose members pledge to reject marriage, childbirth, dating or heterosexual sex for life. “We just want to build a world where women can live free of men,” says one activist.

South Korea’s fertility rate – the average number of babies born to each woman – is just 0.8, provoking profound fears for its future, since this is far below the 2.1 level needed to ensure population stability without immigration.

The nation has become the most striking example of the global decline in birth rates, a decline that has left two-thirds of people living in countries with fertility rates below this critical level. There is concern that half of South Korea’s rapidly ageing population will be pensioners within three decades, making its population the oldest in human history.

Driven, it seems, by increasingly bitter resentment at being forced to choose between having a career or a family, South Korea’s women of childbearing age are increasingly plumping for the former:

Kindergartens are being converted into care homes, while at least 150 elementary schools had no new pupils when the academic year started last month. The number of children entering education in the capital Seoul – home to a fifth of the population – has fallen 8% on the previous year.

But in a bizarre twist (or is it?) these women are taking on dogs and cats in ever-increasing numbers and investing in the same sort of paraphernalia they might once have purchased for children:

Sales of prams for dogs now outsell those for babies. And with so many childless households, the number of registered dogs and cats – child substitutes, perhaps – has almost tripled over the past decade. “We’re so busy right now,” said one firm making £850 pet buggies.

Before you choke on your tea or coffee with disbelief, it doesn’t take much looking around in the UK to see increasing numbers of pampered dogs being pushed around parks in prams or treated to ludicrous indulgences and luxuries. Only last month the Telegraph had a piece about mutts having thousands spent on them by their gurning ‘pet parents’. One of them, a 36 year-old woman with a medical condition (unspecified) that prevents her from travelling alone, just knows her Pembroke Welsh Corgi is worth it:

When it was time to test Winston on his first flight, Frances booked a flight from Colorado to Las Vegas on a private jet. “He loved it,” she says. “I have a video of him coming down the stairs to a royal trumpet.”

The experience cost $16,000 (£12,000). Now, if Frances tries to take Winston on a budget airline, his reaction is “total disgust”.

Winston’s wardrobe is another expense Frances is happy to splurge on, with jumpers from Gucci and Louis Vuitton. His collar is £600 from Goyard.

She also has custom outfits – including a pilot outfit and a Guards outfit – made for him, which range from £45 to £75 per look.

In South Korea, the problems resulting from voluntary childlessness are far more widespread, but Europe is fast catching up, says the Mail:

The latest data for England and Wales show fertility rates plunging from 1.94 in 2010 to a record low of 1.41 in 2024, sparking fears over the funding of health and welfare systems from a reduced younger workforce as our society gets older. Scotland faces greater problems, with a rate of 1.25.

Spain, Italy, Greece and Poland are grappling with some of Europe’s worst fertility problems – all with lower rates than Scotland – while the US disclosed this month that its birth rates have dropped almost one-quarter in just two decades.

But it is South Korea where the problem is greatest. Many of the concerns facing its women are familiar to us in Britain, such as soaring housing costs, workplace sexism and the trade-off between a career and motherhood.

Yet in South Korea, many of the pressures are more extreme. It is the world’s most expensive place to raise a child. Its women are the most highly educated of those in OECD countries, yet endure the worst gender pay gap and share of household duties. Korea also has the longest working hours of any advanced nation.

Fundamental to this is an increasing determination of South Korean young women to live without men:

Among them is Moon Young-one, 24, a maths tutor and leader of a rapidly growing group of 4B followers called Wolves in the Hell (WITH), which boasts 550 members and claims to be one of many such communities.

“It is really hard to survive as a woman here,” she said. “Our movement is not about rejecting men – I don’t want to spend my limited time alive hating men – but against a patriarchal system. It’s about cherishing women. And it is ok not to have a man.”

4B is shorthand for four Korean words that start with bi – meaning ‘no’: bihon (rejection of marriage), biyeonae (no dating), bisekseu (abstaining from sex) and bichulsan (refusal of childbirth). Many other women declare themselves ‘bihon’, denoting their choice to remain single forever.

This movement flared up in the wake of outrage after the 2016 murder in a Seoul subway station lavatory of a 23 year-old woman by a man who told police he felt “ignored and belittled” by females. Another subway station murder – of a 28 year-old stabbed by her long-term stalker three years ago – ignited fresh dismay and fury.

Unsurprisingly, the 4B movement has led to an aggressive male backlash, with young men believing they are discriminated against and thereby virulently oppose feminism.

Whatever the tensions, the potential outcome is clear for one of the world’s most successful economies and is a warning to the West. North Korea is not far behind, where economic shortages have encouraged a decline in childbirth because not having as many children temporarily boosts living standards, particularly on a household level. It’s also a place where there is little chance of dogs being pampered as substitutes. Dog meat is a sought-after delicacy in North Korea. Conversely, in 2024 South Korea banned dog meat for human consumption from 2027.

The Mail’s piece is worth reading in full.