Thu, Nov 15, 2001 page8

• Women must break political ceiling

  • By Hsu Chia-ching 徐佳青
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  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 (本土) grouping: the DPP, TSU and Taiwan Independence Parties and the non-local grouping (非本土): the KMT, PFP and New Parties].

  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 (鄭秀珠), for example, seeks approval by constantly stressing that she is the wife of a certain person, but she herself does not have any past record of outstanding political achievement. This makes her compete on a completely different level from the other candidates Weng Chin-chu (翁金珠) and Yeh Chin-feng (葉金鳳), who both have worked thoroughly on the grassroots-level and possess real political strengths. Cheng's inclusion in the race is not political strategy, but would be better said to be the PFP's way of muddling in the election campaign, rather than doing anything good for the people of Changhua county.

  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
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