How Mandatory Military Service Can Divide Rather Than Unite: Conscription, Gender, and Military Trust in South Korea 2003–2021.

This article examines how mandatory military service, required only of men in South Korea, affects public trust in the military and state institutions, with a focus on gender differences. Using nationally representative survey data from 2003 to 2021 and leveraging the random assignment of child gender as a natural experiment, the study finds that women generally exhibit lower trust in the military than men, and that mothers of sons subject to conscription show significantly increased distrust compared to fathers. In contrast, men who served do not display higher trust in other state institutions, indicating that conscription does not foster broader political cohesion. The findings suggest that male-only conscription may deepen societal divisions in military trust rather than unify the population, highlighting important implications for civil–military relations and conscription policy debates.