The transfer of power following last year's presidential election was a great leap forward for Taiwanese democracy. It also, however, produced the return of an anti-democratic atmosphere, in which the localization debate has incited the most arguments.
What I am most concerned about, however, is the gender awareness within the parties of the two large political groupings [the local (
The total number of candidates for Aboriginal legislative seats and candidates representing a specific district this year comes to 425. Of these, only 60 are women, roughly 12 percent of the candidates.
That number has decreased a great deal from the last legislative elections, in which out of 382 candidates, 63 were women (approximately 17 percent).
This year, four out of the TSU's 39 candidates are women compared with 13 out of 81 for the DPP; 24 out of 98 for the KMT; 10 out of 61 for the People First Party (PFP) and nine out of 33 for the New Party. The number of candidates nominated by the Taiwan Independence Party is too insignificant to merit being included in any proportionate comparison.
The above numbers indicate that in the local faction, the proportion of women nominated by the DPP is far higher than that of the TSU, and in the non-local faction the proportion of women nominated by the New Party is higher than that of the KMT and the PFP.
The PFP is the party with the lowest proportion of female candidates and the second lowest is the TSU, showing that their social progressiveness still leaves much to be desired.
Next, looking at the proportions for the legislators-at-large and overseas Chinese seats, the TSU's short list of 16 names includes just 1 woman and of the DPP's 28 candidates, six are women. The KMT has 13 women on its list of 47 names, the PFP has four women among its 28 names, and the New Party has 3 women on its list of 10 nominees.
The TSU has the lowest proportion, the second lowest is the PFP. The two parties, participating in the legislative elections for the first time, have equally low proportions. The two parties' lists are drawn up mostly by their party leaders and are not created in accordance with democratic procedures.
Their lack of female representation reveals the heavily patriarchal attitudes of the two parties' leaders and their lack of consideration for equality between the sexes. This phenomenon is well worth the attention of a modern electorate.
In contrast, the number of female KMT candidates has rapidly increased. Whether this is due to an initiative within the party or a result of the KMT's split -- in which many male party members defected to the PFP, giving women in the KMT the chance to show themselves -- still needs further investigation.
We do know that there are no actual rules stipulating gender quotas in the KMT candidate nomination process. The DPP party charter, on the other hand, lists clear regulations regarding the ratio between men and women, but in reality the rules are often restricted. In constituencies where less than four candidates are nominated there are often no female candidates. This then puts the overall ratio of female candidates below 20 percent.
This structural problem should be balanced with the number of female nominees for legislator-at-large and overseas Chinese seats, but to the regret of a great many women, changes in party election procedures has become more difficult in a situation where competition between party colleagues is getting fiercer by the day.
In the New Party, which nominates a large number of candidates, the ratio of female candidates is close to one-third of their total candidates nominated. Unfortunately the New Party's power is insufficient, but it is nevertheless an important example for the non-local party grouping.
Looking at the county commissioner and mayoral races, the six counties and cities for which women have been nominated are Hsinchu, Taichung and Chiayi cities, and Changhua, Hualien and Penghu counties.
Compared to the previous county commissioner and mayoral elections where there were five female candidates, this number is slightly higher. However, the DPP, the KMT and the PFP have all only nominated one woman each for county commissioner seats, and the TSU and New Party entered no women in those races.
There are also quite a few female independent candidates this year, beating their own path among the men. Nevertheless, we can already predict that the number of female county commissioners in the coming term will be markedly lower than during the previous term.
It's also worth mentioning that the only female county commissioner candidates nominated by the DPP, the KMT and the PFP are all concentrated in Changhua County. That fact has the media incessantly hyping the race as "a war among women," while ignoring the actual abilities and special qualities of these candidates.
The PFP candidate Cheng Hsiu-chu (
Looking at the total number of female candidates, this election is definitely no substantial breakthrough for women in politics. Instead it shows that women participating in politics in the future must develop more efficient strategies so they can break through the restrictions of the present nomination system. If women fail to succeed in this endeavor, they will be restricted to a certain proportion, making overall improvements in the political climate, or elevating female political participation, more difficult.
I would propose that perhaps women in similar political groupings in the future could consider reorganizing into a different kind of political party. Female politicians in the non-local faction, for example, could join together to demand that the parties they belong to lay down a set of nomination principles regulating the proportion of male and female candidates based on a cross-comparison between and monitoring of political parties.
Women in political parties that fall short of requirements should seek to form an alliance with other political parties, combining into a political group and expanding the overall influence of women in politics. At the same time women should force parties to develop a more socially advanced way of thinking, instead of following the logic of the current partisan reshuffle, which only allows female politicians to become party propaganda products rather than develop into truly influential, independent leaders.
Hsu Chia-ching is Secretary-General of the League of Taiwan Women.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US