4B Movement Official Website

Inequality in the Workplace

In South Korea, there are significant gender inequalities in the workplace. Women face disparities in employment opportunities, salary, and promotion prospects compared to men. Despite increasing educational attainment among women, they remain underrepresented in managerial positions in companies. Many women's work abilities and achievements do not receive the recognition and rewards they deserve. This has led to women's dissatisfaction with workplace unfairness, prompting them to participate in the 4B movement as a way to protest gender inequality.

Inequality in Family Responsibilities

Traditional Korean social norms place the primary responsibility for household chores and child - rearing on women. Women have to spend a large amount of time and energy on family care while also dealing with work pressure, severely limiting their personal development and freedom. Participants in the 4B movement consider this distribution of family responsibilities unfair and hope to break the traditional gender - role division by rejecting marriage and childbearing.

2. Dissatisfaction with Women's Victimization in Society

Frequent Sexual Crimes

There are problems such as voyeurism and sexual harassment in South Korean society, which cause great harm to women's physical and mental health. After some sexual crime incidents are exposed, victims may not only fail to receive proper protection and support but also may suffer secondary harm or social discrimination. This has led women to question and be angry about social security and judicial fairness. The 4B movement has become a way for some women to express their dissatisfaction with sexual crime issues. They hope to protect themselves from sexual assault by refusing contact with men.

Threat of Violent Crimes

Violent crimes against women also occur from time to time, making women feel fearful and insecure in daily life. Some women believe that in the current social environment, they cannot ensure their own safety and dignity. Therefore, they choose to join the 4B movement to avoid possible violent attacks.

3. Reflection and Resistance to Traditional Marriage Concepts

High Marriage Pressure

Traditional Korean social concepts have high expectations for women's marriage. Women who have not married by a certain age will face tremendous pressure from family and society. This external pressure has led some women to resist marriage, believing that marriage should not be a mandatory task for women but should be based on personal will and choice. The 4B movement provides these women with a way to resist traditional marriage concepts and allows them to freely choose their own lifestyles.

Concerns about Marriage Quality

Some women, after observing problems in marriages around them, have doubts about the quality of marriage. They believe that in the current social environment, marriage may bring more burdens and pain to women rather than happiness and satisfaction. Therefore, they choose to reject marriage to pursue a more free and independent life.

4. Awakening of Women's Self - Consciousness and Pursuit of Independence

Higher Education Levels

With the popularization and development of education, more and more women have received higher education, which has made their thinking more open and their self - consciousness continuously enhanced. They have begun to re - examine their life values and role - positioning, no longer satisfied with the roles traditionally assigned to women by society, but eager to pursue an independent, free, and equal life. The 4B movement has become a way for them to express their self - consciousness and pursuit of independence.

Social Media Promotion

The development of social media has provided a platform for women to communicate and express themselves, enabling the ideas of the 4B movement to spread and diffuse rapidly. Women can share their experiences and views on social media, support and encourage each other, thus forming a group effect and promoting the development of the 4B movement.

In 2019, a TikTok video explaining the 4B movement (no marriage, no childbearing, no dating, no sexual relations) went viral, attracting wide - spread attention.

The novel "Kim Ji - young, Born 1982" by Cho Nam - joo, which exposed social problems, promoted the development of the movement.

In 2016, the murder of a woman near a subway station in Seoul and other crimes against women aggravated women's dissatisfaction.

The "Escape the Corset" movement laid a certain ideological foundation for the 4B Movement.

After Trump's re - election as President of the United States, the discussion heat of the 4B Movement on American social media has been rising day by day. Google search volume has surged, and related topics have been widely discussed on platforms such as TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). Many young women explore and promote the 4B concept on these platforms, expressing their attention and support for the movement.

Some American women express their views on social media, calling on American women to participate in the 4B Movement. For example, there are tweets like "Ladies, we should consider the 4B Movement like South Korean women and make the birth rate in the United States drop significantly", which have received a large number of likes and attention.

Some American women have joined the 4B Movement through rather extreme behaviors such as shaving their heads to protest against Trump's election. This behavior has attracted public attention and has also become a special manifestation of the movement in the United States.