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
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) first suggested a mass recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Taipei Times called the idea “not only absurd, but also deeply undemocratic” (“Lai’s speech and legislative chaos,” Jan. 6, page 8). In a subsequent editorial (“Recall chaos plays into KMT hands,” Jan. 9, page 8), the paper wrote that his suggestion was not a solution, and that if it failed, it would exacerbate the enmity between the parties and lead to a cascade of revenge recalls. The danger came from having the DPP orchestrate a mass recall. As it transpired,
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
All 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), formerly of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), survived recall elections against them on Saturday, in a massive loss to the unprecedented mass recall movement, as well as to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that backed it. The outcome has surprised many, as most analysts expected that at least a few legislators would be ousted. Over the past few months, dedicated and passionate civic groups gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall KMT lawmakers, an extraordinary achievement that many believed would be enough to remove at