Gender equity and trust in government: Evidence from South Korea

Abstract

AbstractMany indicators suggest that the level of gender equity is low in Korea. According to the psychological‐democratic contract theory, because gender inequality calls into question the capacity of government, when citizens perceive low levels of gender equity, they are not likely to trust in government. Despite the importance, relatively little attention is paid to the ramifications of gender equity on trust in government. To fill the void, the objective of this article was to identify the extent to which gender equity affects trust in government. The key findings of the 2009 Korean General Social Survey are as follows: (a) Gender equity positively affects trust in government; (b) Gender equity has a larger effect on female citizen trust in government than male citizen trust in government; and (c) gender equity is more strongly associated with trust in the Supreme Court than other government branches.