Expanding the youth discourse: everyday precarity through a young South Korean woman’s autoethnography

ABSTRACT

This study expands the youth discourse in South Korea through an autoethnographic account. The concept of precarity is explored through multifaceted attributes such as subjective feelings, subjectification, and daily practices. Through an examination of feminist critiques, which argue that gender is another primary aspect of precarity, this study reflects upon gender blindness in existing research and explains the youth’s anxiety based on modern gender relations. It employs the author’s first-person account to describe and analyse the mechanisms of everyday precarity in the labour context and coping strategies as a young woman. The analysis revealed that everyday precarity operates across generations and genders, beyond class struggles, manifesting in individualized coping strategies. This result asserts how female youth, thus far marginalized subjects, offer a new horizon in youth research.

KEYWORDS:

• Class-centrism
• youth research
• autoethnography
• everyday precarity
• South Korea

Introduction: issues of youth discourses in South Korea

In current times, ‘precariat,’ a compound word formed by combining ‘precarious’ and ‘proletariat,’ has become a descriptor for the younger generation of adults. The youth discourse that has swept across South Korea in the past decades defines it as the ‘N-Po’ generation. Here, ‘Po’ means ‘giving up’ in Korean, and ‘N’ refers to the ‘N’ number of things given up on, including dating, marriage, childbirth, property ownership, and dreams and hopes. In this context, researchers portray young people as subjects of neoliberal self-development, that is, marginalized or surplus beings losing the competition for living in an era where ‘Survive!’ is the mantra (H. J. Kim, 2015). Within the established paradigm of youth research, which is generational and class-centric, the youth’s anxieties and sufferings have been largely attributed to their vulnerable economic position, owing to insecure employment. Little attention has been paid to individual differences, and layers of precarity beyond class have not been considered in the youth discourse.

This study focuses on a new discussion regarding the youth’s everyday labour practices. Its primary objective is to critically examine the existing discourse and re-evaluate the related frameworks. In addition, this study sheds light on a young woman’s real-life working practices as a springboard to expand upon the current narrow understandings regarding youth. The mainstream discourse often presents the disillusionment of ‘young men,’ which has resulted in young women being peripheralized and overlooked. However, young women embody the strongest resistance to gender stereotypes, challenging and transcending the existing youth discourse. In this context, the author’s autoethnographic account of precarity as a young woman helps ground the youth discourse in individual and microscopic understandings.

Youth, precariat

Generation-specific application of precarity

Since the early 2000s, a series of terms, such as ‘precariousness,’ ‘precarious work,’ ‘precarious workers,’ and ‘precariat,’ have been used in academia, public discourses, and policy discussions in South Korea (W. S. Kim & Shin, 2021). Against the background of such developments, the expansion of flexible labour since the late 1990s has led to the emergence of an unstable labour group, referred to by various names, such as non-regular workers, contract workers, interns, part-timers, and temporary workers (Park, 2021). In the 2010s, as the discussion on basic income became more active in South Korea, scholars who were actively engaged in basic income discourse led the discussion on precariat, and debates extended beyond the field of social sciences (Hyerim, 2021).

In South Korea, literature related to precariat has referred to a group of workers characterized by labour flexibility, using terms such as ‘contract workers,’ ‘interns,’ ‘part-timers,’ ‘subcontracted workers,’ ‘low-income groups,’ and ‘platform workers,’ collectively labelled as ‘unstable workers’ (Hyerim, 2021; Kwack, 2020; Park, 2021; Sunam, 2020; Yoonhee, 2021). While these studies emphasize different aspects, such as the precarious position in employment, the form of labour, low wages, and income distribution, they share the common point of collectively labelling the vulnerable in employment as the precariat.

Since the late 2000s, after the publication of ‘The 880,000 Won Generation,’ a discourse has blossomed in South Korea regarding impoverished young people (K.-S. Lee, 2018). The dominant tendency of youth discourse has been to focus on their precarious economic condition, such as irregular jobs, unemployment, and the labour market’s hierarchical positions (Choi, 2018; Joung & Kim, 2017; W. S. Kim & Shin, 2021; J. A. Lee & Kim, 2017; S. Y. Lee et al., 2017a).

Most youth discourse uses the term ‘precariat’ in various and fragmented contexts, designating the entire youth as a vulnerable class. Notably, youth is often synonymously used with precariats, such as ‘youth precariat’ (Cha & Kim, 2022), or ‘female youth precariat’ (H. J. Kim, 2016; Y. J. Lee, 2017). Moreover, they implicitly identify the younger generation as a potentially precarious group under the platform economy as ‘mobile platform users and freelancers’ (Kwack, 2020), or refer to the impoverished as the youth ‘who entered the labor world prematurely by dropping out or neglecting their studies’ (Sunam, 2020, p. 95).

Referencing youth as the ‘precariat’ generation is problematic for several reasons. It reflects a disturbing tendency of social science to conceptually address or substitute the complex issues through the use of a seemingly fresh term (Hyerim, 2021). Furthermore, the precariat youth discussion fails to distinguish the features of the precarious youth from those of the previous generations, or address how such vulnerability is connected to globalization, and what lies beneath this vulnerability beyond flexible labour positions. It merely designates the youth as a vulnerable class.

This superficial approach associated with ‘precariat youth’ discourse can be partly attributed to the inherent lack of rigour within the precariat theory itself. ‘Precariat’ is a historical, rather than generational, concept. Standing (2011) defined it as a distinct ‘class-in-the-making,’ placed beneath the (higher) ‘elite,’ ‘salariats,’ ‘proficians,’ and ‘working class.’ The emergence of this new class in the 21st century can be attributed to a restructuring of the socio-economic system due to rapid globalization and the subsequent weakening of the nation-state’s influence (Standing, 2014).

However, despite the significant impact of precarious work on individuals, the precise identification of the precariat and its differentiation from previous generations of the labour class remains ambiguous (Breman, 2013; Palmer, 2014). Researchers have not agreed upon the exact definition of precariat, causing it to be interpreted as a class of irregular workers (J. K. Lee, 2012), a marginalized group (Kwank, 2010), or a category of individuals without stable class identities (J. K. Lee, 2013).

In recent years, the precariat has been increasingly understood to have multifaceted attributes with various impacts and manifestations rather than only hierarchical and categorical attributes (S. Y. Lee et al., 2017b). In this context, Standing’s concept of ‘precariatization,’ that is, the process by which individuals become precariat, is noteworthy. It is the process by which a person gets accustomed to an unstable existence due to one’s status as a precarious worker, a lack of fulfilment from work, and a mechanical reliance on the current way of life (Standing, 2011, 2014). This understanding challenges the notion of the precariat as a fixed class category and highlights the need to consider its complex and multifaceted attributes, such as feelings of insecurity, self-identifying as precarious workers, and performativity.

The above discussion raises some important questions – Has mainstream youth research been monopolized by this limited and vague concept of ‘generation-specific’ precarity? Has it reduced the youth’s precarity to economic vulnerability? Has it simplistically assumed that all young people share the same class vulnerabilities? Has it adequately considered other dimensions, such as identity formation, performativity, and gender, or is the youth’s vulnerability compressed into an economic position? For a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of the youth’s vulnerability, it is necessary to expand the discourse by developing a new approach that goes beyond the economic- and generation-centric perspective.

The gender dimension of precarity

Discussions on precarious work have been criticized for their excessive focus on class, and the neglect of other factors, such as gender and ethnicity. As McRobbie (2011) argues, explaining contemporary social structures with the traditional concept of class needs reconsideration. Specifically, the restricted interpretation of class as a structurally antagonistic relationship between capital and labour cannot account for today’s complex social structures, wherein workers are not actively engaged in labour movements driven by class antagonism.

The problem of vulnerable and precarious labour predominantly occurs with underpaid female workers who are undervalued and have low job security (Flores Garrido, 2020; McRobbie, 2011). The emergence of post-Fordism, characterized by labour flexibility and instability, has been enabled by an abundant pool of human resources; particularly the influx of female labour. The feminization of the labour market, that arose with the second wave of feminism, initially aimed to liberate women through work. However, in reality, it became a tool for managing a capitalist crisis by incorporating female labour (Flores Garrido, 2020).

Precarity intertwines with women’s lives and subjectivities in a contradictory manner as a vivid embodied experience (McRobbie, 2011). Women’s precarity encompasses precarious living conditions and dimensions of subjectivity. Their participation in the labour market has been influenced by the complex interplay of capitalist crises and patriarchal structures that shape a gendered labour market, resulting in their relatively greater engagement in flexible jobs than men. However, neoliberal feminism has called for women’s entry into the labour market through empowerment, autonomy, and voluntary choice. The ideology that women are liberated through work, propagated by liberal feminism, fails to confront the present challenges of a contradictory reality. Through these operations, precarity has a nuanced impact on women than on men.

When considering the personal and subjective dimensions of precarity, it becomes apparent that it is not a uniform state that affects all members equally but rather a dimension that is experienced variedly by individual women (Flores Garrido, 2020). Therefore, when approaching the concept of precarity, it is crucial to focus on the practical, lived dimensions intertwined with the societal structure. McRobbie (2011) emphasizes the need to explore actual tensions, anxieties, and sufferings in real-life settings to understand precarity. This requires attention to individual cases of actual working practices, differences, and intersections among individuals for a precise understanding of how precarity works (Flores Garrido, 2020).

In South Korean society, feminist scholars have criticized mainstream youth research for ignoring the gender dimensions of precarity. Bae (2015) criticized the youth discourse in South Korea for assuming the youth population to be predominantly male and understanding their disillusionment through the standardized life cycles of modern men. Although since the late 1980s, the transition to adulthood has shown individual variations, this discourse presupposes a normative lifecycle and considers weakened gender relations in modern times as the standard. Bae (2015) attributes this phenomenon to the gender blindness that perceives women as supporters in men’s lives, resulting in the absorption of gender disparities within class or generational disparities, making gender disparities invisible.

Another reason for the gender’s lack of visibility being considered an independent issue is the paradoxical entanglement of women with modernity, which lies at the core of individualism. Modernity emerged as an attribute of male dominance within the nuclear family, wherein women were not seen as being fully ‘individual’ beings. Women’s endeavour to attain this status led to their entry into the labour market, coinciding with second-wave feminism, but the outcomes are debatable. Today, women struggle with the dual challenge of dismantling patriarchy-centred modernity and attaining modernity (Eom, 2015). This is another dimension of precarity inherent to gender.

Driven by the growing accumulation of criticisms, researchers have begun exploring various dimensions of youth precarity. These studies focus on issues, such as disparities among young college students and urban poor youth in the Seoul Capital Area (Cho, 2022), the expression of self-identity among precarious young workers (W. S. Kim & Shin, 2021), living alone as a form of resistance against the ideal of the traditional family (M. J. Kim, 2021), and face as an indicator of precarious young women’s vulnerability (H. J. Kim, 2016). Researchers have noted that, unlike young men, young women’s vulnerability is caused by the interweaving of class, gender, and generation (H. J. Kim, 2016). Even those with high educational qualifications and employment status are vulnerable due to the tension between the normative family ideology and the desire for independence and individuality (M. J. Kim, 2021).

Studies on the youth population’s heterogeneity and gender have not been integrated into mainstream youth research and exist as fragmented works. The mainstream discourse labels itself as ‘youth’ discourse without specifying ‘men,’ despite taking men’s life cycles as the standard. Research on young women is peripheralized as ‘youth women’ or ‘women’ studies, instead of ‘youth’ studies. Consequently, gender research in the context of youths has marginally positioned itself in such a discourse, leading to further segregation from the mainstream ‘youth research’ and solidification within women’s studies.

Individual approaches to young women through autoethnography

Existing studies have explained the youth’s anxieties and disillusionment within a generational and male-centric framework, overlooking individual differences. This has limited the opportunities for reflecting upon researcher biases. In response, researchers have suggested focusing on individual practices as a way to overcome such limitations. Bae (2015) emphasized prioritizing the individual practices of those who build their lives when analysing South Korean youth, given that the existing youth studies are premised on standardized life cycles. McRobbie (2011) stated that it was crucial to identify points of actual tension to create a new language for precarious work by highlighting everyday practices.

This study adopts autoethnography as the methodology for analysing individual practices of young women because of its emphasis on personal experiences and narratives. Autoethnography emerged in the late 1990s as an alternative academic methodology in social sciences, with a focus on narrative understanding and the use of self-narratives (Tyler, 1986). Rather than pursuing value-neutral, objective knowledge, autoethnography integrates the dimensions of emotion, embodiment, and experience, and departs from the strict biases associated with social science research. It rejects the hierarchical presentation of conceptual and analytical domains from one perspective and emotional, material, and embodied dimensions from the other. Instead, it actively involves the researcher in the research process and fosters an understanding of life beyond academic confines.

As a genre and methodological practice, autoethnography expands the boundaries of social sciences and humanities. It incorporates first-person writing and rejects the traditional norm of value-neutrality in social science, recognizing that the latter encompasses factual observation and subjective meanings and values (Bochner & Ellis, 2022). Bochner & Ellis define autoethnography as ‘autobiographies that self-consciously explore the interplay of the introspective, personally engaged self with cultural descriptions mediated through language, history, and ethnographic explanation’ (2000, as cited in Joo, 2010, p. 81). Hence, this methodology integrates socio-cultural, analytical, and conceptual understandings with emotional and physical understandings through autobiographical writing.

While some South Korean researchers have experimented with autoethnography, such studies are scant. They can be categorized into three main types – those that explore past experiences based on the researcher’s recollections (Joo, 2007; Y. C. Kim, 2011; Oh, 2011), those that examine processes of identity formation concerning ideas, such as feminism, uncle fans, and idol fans (Han & Roh, 2012; Kang, 2011), and those that employ autoethnographic perspectives in conjunction with traditional methodologies, such as in-depth interviews (Chae, 2016; Joo, 2010). A closer examination of these studies reveals tendencies like limited application of the methodology to specific research topics, such as fandom identities; and adherence to the norms of traditional social science methodologies. These observations suggest that autoethnography remains a relatively unfamiliar methodology for South Korean researchers.

Although there is limited research based on autoethnography, it is important to highlight that several youth studies have employed this method. Joo (2010) extensively utilized autoethnography to explore conversations between a professor and students at a provincial university to shed light on the marginalization experienced in provincial universities and how both the professor and students navigated it. Chae (2016) reflected on personal experiences as an unstable part-timer, using autoethnography to understand the vulnerability of young women’s lives and labour through her intimate social networks. It is noteworthy that while autoethnography is not a widely employed methodology in South Korea, there have been significant autoethnographic studies in the country that have focused on the vulnerability of young people. This highlights its potential as a methodology for studying marginalized groups.

This study responds to critiques by showing that precarity has multifaceted dimensions beyond class-centric features. In particular, it affects women in several contradictory ways (McRobbie, 2011). To explore precarity beyond its current research limitations, the study analyses an autobiographic essay written by the author as a young working woman from a first-person perspective. The essay provides a subjective account of her personal labour experiences during approximately two years of employment as a junior office worker within a conservative and hierarchically structured South Korean organization. Originally written in a diary format as a personal outlet for coping with everyday precarity, the essay offers an authentic depiction of first-hand experiences, emotions, thoughts, and reflections. Thus, the essay is used to describe and foster an individualized understanding of the multidimensional aspects of precarity from a socio-cultural perspective.

Everyday precarity as experienced by young women and coping strategies

Dynamics of everyday precarity

Precarity is paradoxically intertwined with subjectivity (McRobbie, 2011). If viewed as the process of subjectification among precarious workers, rather than as a fixed position or state, how is it specifically experienced and manifested in young women’s everyday working life?

Behavioural patterns must be reconfigured to align with a company’s closed order. The pressure to conform to organizational order and hierarchy extends to personal conduct, including speech, laughter, and greetings. These demands are enforced through various contradictory logics, such as a strong negation of the stages crossed before entering the company, symbolized by the ‘school.’

Many of the initial remarks upon joining the company revolved around comparisons with the school. Within the company, it was considered unacceptable to exhibit behavior resembling that of a student. The process of becoming a member of society entailed acquiring various new skills and knowledge. Interestingly, work-related matters often took a back seat. Among the many things that the recruits had to learn, the company’s social rules were the most urgent. For example, address a belatedly promoted deputy manager as ‘senior’ and not by their job title, and exercise caution to not mention Manager A when sharing meals with Manager B due to their strained relationship. (Hyeran, 2022)

Such self-monitoring is presented as a rite of passage and a growth process, which is expected of every member of society. It is not perceived as self-imposed surveillance or control, instead as the transition from being a student to being a respected member of society. Consequently, the acquisition of appropriate behavioural patterns in daily life that align with the micro-dynamics of power relations gauges one’s competence as a member of society.

These artificial behavioral patterns, obtained at the cost of one’s individuality, were encouraged and endorsed, irrespective of one’s intrinsic nature. This process was justified by the idea that ‘everyone’ undergoes this transformation. The list of behavioral patterns that the recruits needed to acquire was extensive and demanding. It necessitated continuous adaptation and learning, depending on the political dynamics within one’s respective groups. One could receive positive recognition only by responding effectively to each situation that affirmed a successful transition from a ‘student’ to ‘a respected member of society’. (Hyeran, 2022)

This process of control does not uniformly apply to all members of an organization. Those in lower-ranking positions are subjected to a more severe process. They internalize ‘appropriate’ behaviour through self-imposed control as a means of surviving within the organization. Alternatively, they wilfully display conformity by actively engaging in contradictory self-presentation. The fact that the intensity of self-expression varies according to rank suggests that this process is not about personal growth, instead, it reinforces power relations within an organization through the internalization of hierarchy and order.

For those at the lowest rank of the hierarchy, survival entails suppressing their true selves, or feigning forgetfulness and constantly being mindful of their ‘position.’ Mannerisms, such as reluctant nods, forced smiles, and saying ‘yes’ while swallowing countless words, were all manufactured in this manner. Senior employees, who had accumulated years of experience, seemed unrestrained in expressing their emotions, perhaps seeking to compensate for their past experiences. Such behavior made it appear as if they were flaunting their positions to their heart’s content. (Hyeran, 2022)

Lower-ranking employees are mostly women, while men predominantly hold higher-ranking positions. This pattern implies that young women are more likely to experience subtle and nuanced precarity than their male peers. Therefore, gender is a primary axis in the operation of precarity in everyday working life. In other words, young women are more likely to be exposed to the subtle, nuanced precarity in addition to their unstable employment status.

Furthermore, control over private life is intensified under the guise of culture. A prominent example is the use of titles. The strictly hierarchical use of titles for seniors and juniors, based on their date of joining the company, is subtly enforced as ‘corporate culture.’ This creates hierarchies within similar job levels and establishes intricate power dynamics beyond rank differences.

Even among the employees who had joined the company in the same year, those who had joined six months earlier were considered seniors. No, they were not just seniors, but also addressed as ‘sir’ or ‘madam.’ Addressing them otherwise would be considered an insult, since doing so is a strict rule here. (Hyeran, 2022)

Conversely, the display of personal relationships within a company is strictly prohibited. It is necessary to avoid displaying personal friendships in the workplace, and boundaries between personal and professional spheres are carefully upheld. Employees are well aware of this and exercise caution in their conversations.

The girl who joined the company at the same time as me was uncomfortable calling me ‘unni’ in front of others (in South Korea, it is customary for a younger girl to call an older girl ‘unni,’ which means older sister, even if they are not related). However, she was the one who had reassured me that it was fine to use informal terms because we were close when I had suggested using formal titles. It seemed that she felt uneasy about displaying familiarity in the office. In fact, I too felt the same way. (Hyeran, 2022)

Expressing personal habits in official business communication is considered a breach of work etiquette. This regulation not only strictly applies to young women who predominantly constitute the junior-level group, but also greatly impacts women employees as a result of the male-centric workplace culture. For example, senior male employees use informal language to address junior-level employees, whereas lower-ranking women are expected to use polite expressions. Furthermore, male employees build relationship similar to family ties, referring to each other as ‘brother,’ yet, this is considered as ‘being socially adept’ instead of overly familiar in the workplace.

The team leader, who was from Gangnam [a fancy district of Seoul, known as South Korea’s Beverly Hills], would often summon me and explain things, while I stood beside him. Whenever this happened, I would unconsciously let out an ‘Ah!’ sound. On one occasion, the team leader reprimanded me, saying that I was ill-mannered, and asked why I made this sound. (Hyeran, 2022)

Control over personal spheres through language extends to subtler realms. Personal speech habits, voice tone, and regional dialects can be targets of scrutiny. Sometimes, using regional dialects and accents is criticized for being unofficial or unprofessional. The norm of regulation varies for each individual supervisor; however, it is commonly based on the prejudice that regional dialects are inferior and unprofessional compared to standard Korean in the working context. This prejudice operates between senior middle-aged men who have started their careers in Seoul before moving to the local area due to government policy and junior-level young women employees who are local residents. As a result, cultural coercion prohibiting the use of personal language, which denotes attributes related to one’s place of origin, operates through gender differences in real working lives.

The exertion of soft pressure, in the name of corporate culture, begins by distinguishing the private and familiar and public and professional spheres. It eventually shifts the personal realm into the controlled public realm. This is achieved through the suppression of familiarity, the use of hierarchical titles, and control over language, with the core objective of erasing individuality. Although this is derived from male-oriented, regionalist biases regarding public and private domains, it is justified as the ‘corporate culture’ needed to ensure efficiency and order. Hence, the underlying mechanisms and contradictions are veiled, and they seamlessly translate into everyday working life, with control over intimacy and privacy being gained naturally, or even willingly, at times.

The structural conflicts are often replaced with generational conflicts. The hierarchy within a company serves as an indicator of economic disparities, such as homeowners versus renters, high annual salaries versus low wages, and seniority-based pay versus minimal rates of wage growth. Given the significant rise in living costs and housing prices, there is a government subsidy for those with a monthly savings plan of 500,000 won called the ‘Youth Hope Savings.’ However, it is difficult for entry-level employees to save this amount. Ironically, while older, senior employees, who own houses in Seoul, often boast about their investment gains and worry about comprehensive real estate holding taxes, young employees are forced to relocate to additional properties in the suburbs due to unaffordable rents in the city.

For same-year entrants from Seoul, it is not easy to save 500,000 won after deducting rent and accounting for daily living expenses. One of them, associating this with a significant decline in quality of life once 500,000 won is withdrawn, dubbed the ‘Youth Hope Savings’ as ‘Youth Unhappiness Savings.’ The finding of one report that about 30% of initial participants have given up on the savings plan is not someone else’s problem. Even though they all possess outstanding credentials and have joined the company by outperforming more than 100 competitors, the salary level remains stagnant due to the seniority-based pay. Moreover, the starting salary for new employees has been frozen for 10 years. (Hyeran, 2022)

Although existing inequalities within an organization can be attributed to structural problems, such as intense competition during the hiring process, seniority-based pay and male-centric working culture, they are often explained through generation-centric perspectives. In most cases, such views lead to the baseless assumption that the ‘MZ generation’ causes generational conflicts because of their ‘rights-savvy 90s’ emphasis on individual rights, work-life balance, and prioritization of personal happiness. This presumption allows the older generation to conveniently avoid confronting the social, cultural, and class inequalities from which they benefit. It is merely a way of acknowledging the existence of differences between generations without exploring the structure of the inequalities or addressing the underlying issues.

Initially, I was puzzled by Manager A’s response that ‘Generational conflicts have rather intensified lately’ to my frustrated comments. I could not comprehend why he linked my casual complaints to generational conflicts or differences. However, it became clear to me soon enough that it was common for the older generation to interpret the younger generation’s discontent in this manner. (Hyeran, 2022)

Alternatively, class-oriented thinking prevalent among young generation imposes oppressive pressure. The designation of a ‘regular office worker’ substitutes structural dissatisfactions with complaints. The prevalence of the rhetoric of stable employment within a company downplays the contradictions by centring around the notion that ‘receiving a salary in the field of arts and culture is a rare occurrence.’ This suggests that no challenge can surpass the vulnerability resulting from job insecurity. Even younger colleagues console each other by comparing one’s situation with inferior and unstable jobs. This suggests that, while the younger generation is aware of their class position, there is a failure to recognize the other contributing factors, such as gender, ethnicity, and cultural diversity (Bae, 2015).

With the growth of class-oriented thinking, centred on precarious employment, various dimensions of precarity have been overlooked and silenced because of the lack of space for proper interpretation. The generation theory framework and consequent limited understanding of precarity are perpetuated and reinforced, shrinking the scope for young people to voice their concerns about structural inequalities.

Coping strategies for everyday precarity

As mentioned, young women’s experiences of precarity in the workplace encompass the structural dimension of inequality and the cultural dimension of public control over personal and intimate spheres, along with the alignment of subjectivity with organizational norms. While these everyday precarities have structural origins, they manifest in daily working life at a microscopic level, making the underlying mechanisms difficult to discern. The expanding generation-centric discourse acts as a persuasive framework for interpreting these issues by overshadowing the structural aspects of everyday precarity. In light of this, how do young women navigate and cope with these daily challenges?

They employ strategies for controlling and managing everyday precarity. Risk management through self-presentation presupposes the fundamental impossibility of resolving the root causes of the problems. While young junior-level employees – mostly young women – are aware of the unjust pressures and paradoxical nature of the social structures that impose these challenges, they recognize that effecting broader change is beyond their capabilities. Consequently, they develop strategies for personal risk management and minimization, which paradoxically makes their sense of self and subjectivity adapt to the given reality. These strategies manifest in vertical relationships through self-regulatory practices, such as regulating emotions, maintaining a facade, and engaging in gossip that separates their personal and professional identities.

If there was one sentence that the team leader liked the most, it was ‘It’s wrong.’ I wanted to ask him what difference it made whether the unit of ‘won’ was inside or outside the table, and whether this small distinction could truly be deemed as ‘wrong.’ However, despite these thoughts, as a performer acting out a role in this absurd drama, I had to accept the pre-determined conclusion and proceed with concluding the matter by replying, ‘Yes, I will make the necessary revisions’. (Hyeran, 2022)

Similar patterns of self-presentation can be observed in horizontal relationships. An exaggerated emphasis on adherence to etiquette acts as a risk management strategy by separating personal and professional identities within these relationships.

A notification flashed, indicating the start of a messenger conversation. It was S, my colleague who had joined the company at the same time as me. Among the colleagues who join the company at the same time, there is a favorable environment for cultivating friendly relationships as they share similar experiences and navigate life in the company together. Despite this shared ground, S and I continued to use formal language in our messenger conversation. It was an unspoken acknowledgment that our relationship was not based on personal friendship, but rather a professional business relationship. (Hyeran, 2022)

The strategy of managing risks by controlling personal spheres manifests itself as rigid professionalism and as extreme positivity and laughter. Young women are more likely to develop this control strategy, based on their awareness of the higher risk of being socially bullied as the target of a rumour about a romantic relationship with a peer employee, compared to men. This awareness is reflected in the fact that women are more likely to be victims of sexual harassment in the workplace compared to men (Moon, 2020). As a result, young women are willing to manage the risk by controlling their natural exchanges and expressions of emotion, or by fabricating fake favourable attitudes, such as fake smiles and excessive kindness.

A female colleague of mine, J, who is younger than me, raised her thumb and burst into laughter at a trivial remark—an interaction that appeared smooth on the surface, and yet concealed her true emotions. As I observed the heart emoji flashing on J’s messenger, I couldn’t help but perceive it as an excessive display of positivity, resembling a mask she wore in society. (Hyeran, 2022)

Young female employees either actively conform to the existing gender stereotypes to gain personal benefits. This differs from the first coping strategy through its focus on personal gains, instead of maintaining distance from hierarchical structures and irregularities and protecting themselves. This approach can be considered a more proactive form of self-presentation that goes beyond risk management and involves the active pursuit of personal advantages. This strategy actively employs the fact that imbalanced ranks between older men and young women, and a sexist atmosphere where women are likely to be sexually objectified, still persist in the South Korean workplace. Although manifested in different forms, these two seemingly contradictory strategies share the same awareness that changing the root is impossible.

Some young women in the firm sought practical advantages by leveraging the fact that others—mainly married older men in higher positions—preferred obedient young female employees, rather than those trying to raise women’s collective voice in the company. For example, the youngest female employee in our team insisted that she could not travel alone to a remote business location as she did not have a driver’s license, which led to the team leader spending the entire day driving her around. (Hyeran, 2022)

The act of conformity can take on contradictory attitudes, depending on the personal positions and circumstances that necessitate conformity. Sometimes, young employees replicate the perspective of older generations towards other peers, despite standing on common ground with each other. For example, they may express anger over the strict hierarchy between seniors and juniors while acting in a discriminatory manner when dealing with contractual workers. This process of selectively choosing a particular stance to cope with everyday pressures involves separating and presenting the self’s different parts, leading to an increasingly paradoxical entanglement with self, which is another aspect of precarity.

B, a female contractual professional, would frequently gossip about P, another female contractual worker who joined the company around the same time. B would make remarks like, ‘P doesn’t seem like a good person. Just the other day, she was saying that we should get along well as contract workers; it seems like she has the illusion that we are at the same level.’ Meanwhile, B consistently emphasized her previous higher position as a professional worker to distinguish herself from other employees. (Hyeran, 2022)

The daily workplace practices of young women do not result in collective behaviours based on class consciousness; rather, they develop in personal and fragmentary manners. Young individuals endure inequalities and employ personal coping strategies through self-presentation, rather than forming and heightening their awareness of inequality and class consciousness within conflictual relationships. This illustrates the deviation from the traditional expectation towards workers when facing precarity as described in previous studies (W. S. Kim & Shin, 2021).

As a personal strategy, everyday labour practices are rooted in the recognition that effecting real change is impossible. In a society where their survival itself is imposed on the precariat as a challenge, subtle and habitual daily violence is hardly recognized as problematic. In a situation where underlying structures of inequality and injustice cannot be uncovered, the prospects of transformation or resistance appear bleak. Consequently, the youth, especially young women, who have been thrown into an era where envisioning a better future appears meaningless, has no choice but to endure an unstable daily life whose true nature is concealed by personal strategies.

Conclusions

This study broadened the youth discourse by critically examining class- and generation-centric perspectives and exploring the multifaceted dimensions of precarity experienced by young women. It described the functioning of everyday precarity and practical strategies employed in the workplace through the author’s autoethnographic account as a young woman and analysed the implications. The conclusions reveal that precarity operates through excessive control over individual and minute aspects of life, such as speech, personal characteristics, and behavioural habits. The widespread impact of the generational discourse limits the language and space available for real resistance. Consequently, young women respond to these circumstances individually by adopting endurance and acceptance strategies, instead of engaging in organizational resistance.

This study has the following implications. First, in contemporary society, precarity needs to be approached as a multilayered and intertwined intersectional process, involving the self, performance, gender, and personal prospects for the future. Most youth studies in South Korea have viewed the precariat primarily as young men based on a vulnerable class position. However, precarity operates at various layers of life and encroaches upon intimate spheres. Paradoxically, the existing youth discourse further limits the space for articulating such precarity.

Second, there is a need to reflect upon the prevalent agential bias in youth research. This research found that, while young people are keenly aware of society’s structural issues, they address these challenges through individual strategies that exploit their selves. It is important to exercise caution when interpreting this situation in defeatist terms. While established discourses have often criticized young people for their inability to effect social change, in the present context of daily precarity, it is increasingly difficult to recognize the paradoxical structure. This contrasts with the 1980s when the ‘established’ generation was the youth. This is further compounded by the deep heterogeneity among the youth, making collective responses challenging. It is worthwhile to question the validity of interpreting survival as the sole proposition of the youth without understanding the situation comprehensively as such interpretations may stem from a modernist agential bias among youth researchers who envision young people as agents of transformative change.

Third, it is crucial to acknowledge young women as capable of bringing a paradigm shift in youth research. Young women have either been marginalized or included implicitly within youth discourse, without being fully integrated into the core of the discourse. As demonstrated in this study, strategies of individual and microscopic everyday labour practices can be prominently observed among young women. The peripheral position of young women paradoxically liberates them from the biases of mainstream discourse, while allowing them to authentically capture the spirit of the times. This highlights the potential of young women to give youth research a fresh perspective beyond their inclusion in the mainstream discourse.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

Additional information

Funding

This study received no external funding.