ABSTRACT
Over a two-year period (from May 2016 to December 2018), there were several notable activist campaigns led by young South Korean women. This chapter explores the opportunities afforded to women participating in these movements via the unique characteristics of digital media, including horizontalism and leaderlessness. In particular, three traits of co-action led to remarkable social change in South Korean society: (1) the egalitarian leadership displayed by South Korean women, enabled through the technological affordances of social media; (2) the protest site turning into a personal and performative space; and (3) the erasure of individuality with the participants presenting a united front as a symbolic, anonymous woman. Even though the Confucian principles embedded in the Korean public sphere have, thus far, ensured a predominantly conservative culture, South Korean women have started to challenge the gender-based subordination with the advent of digital media.
