Legislative progress on one front

As the seventh legislative assembly settles into their seats, expect to see a familiar and outdated structure. The new legislature is essentially a one-and-a-half-party assembly, with no promise of competition spurring lawmakers to excel and no voice for small parties. Talk of a third force making itself heard has flown out the window.

The real surprise though, is that this new legislature, so utterly lacking in diversity, has a record percentage of female lawmakers.

In last month's legislative elections, women won 17 seats in the district elections. Including legislators-at-large, there are 34 women in the new assembly. That comprises 30 percent of the total, representing a domestic record, but also putting Taiwan among the top 20 countries in terms of female political representation.

While is definite cause to worry about the lack of party diversity, the jump in women legislators proportionally is a cause for joy.

But stronger representation for women in the legislature needs to be discussed in the context of the entire election.

The political parties themselves remain the main obstacle to female political participation. In the district vote, the two major parties both nominated a low proportion of female candidates. Women made up 18 percent of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nominees and 15 percent of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominees.

Eleven the 13 women nominated by the KMT and five of the 11 nominated by the DPP were elected. That means that the success rate of female candidates was around 85 percent and 50 percent respectively. In other words, the success rate of women exceeded that of male candidates, whose rate of success was 81 percent and 13 percent respectively.

But this is no news.

In previous elections the number of women was also not high, yet their campaigns were more successful than their male counterparts.

It would seem, therefore, that the reason women are still underrepresented in the legislature is not because the voters are against putting women in charge of legislation. The real obstacle lies in the parties.

As in other countries where the majority of seats are tied to districts, competition begins within the party, with nominations. Women who want to run for legislative seats have this first hurdle to conquer, and patriarchal culture is clearly deeply rooted within political parties.

Successful candidates in last months elections generally shared three characteristics. Most of them were re-elected, with only four new district and three new at-large women lawmakers. In addition, most are very well educated, with graduate degrees, and are experienced politicians. Most of them also have family backgrounds with high political participation.

It is clear that capabilities and background have been of equal importance for these women in developing successful political careers.

If women pass through the hurdles they face in their parties, they are likely to win sustained support from voters.

It is worth mentioning that all the new female legislators come from families that are very involved in politics. They were mostly from counties in central and southern Taiwan. Changhua County Legislator Cheng Ju-fen (鄭汝芬), whose husband is Changhua County councilor Hsieh Tien-lin (謝典霖), Yunlin County Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡), whose father is former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), Tainan City Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), whose father is former Tainan County councilor Cheng Chia-chao (陳佳照), and Kaohsiung County Legislator Chiang Ling-chun (江玲君), whose father is former National Assembly representative Chiang Chi-yuan (江吉源), are a few examples.

Dynastic appears frequently not only in Taiwan's past, but also in other Asian countries, including Pakistan, India and the Philippines.

But there are two questions here: How do capable women without family connections to the world of politics carve out a new paradigm of female political participation? And what is the capacity of dynastic political power to combat patriarchal power structures when the heirs are women?

There is another problem to consider. Although the higher proportion of women in the legislature increases political representation for one group, the assembly is nevertheless incredibly lacking in diversity.

As the number of parties dwindles, minority groups such as women who lobby for change could eventually be dependent on the good will of a single party.

The power structure within the two major parties remains unshaken and women will continue to face many challenges.

It is also worth noting that the number of female legislators with a background in women's groups has not risen. It is naive to think that women in the legislature will necessarily represent the interests of women.

In addition, equality is not only an issue of equal political representation for both genders. It requires representation for diverse classes and societal groups.

Protecting rights of foreign spouses and migrant workers, for example, requires a legislature that represents the interests of minorities. The advent of a system in which small parties cannot make themselves heard will stunt the development of a pluralistic democracy.

We are of course looking forward to a time when women will have a key majority in the legislature and can bring qualitative change to the legislature and its negative culture. But at the same time, the lack of diversity in the legislature, including the uniform and uncommon background of female legislators and the absence of small parties and representatives of other societal groups are major challenges.

Yang Wan-ying is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at National Chengchi University.

Translated by Angela Hong