Several women's organizations yesterday released a list of legislative candidates they deem friendly or unfriendly to issues relating to women.
"A panel of judges at the Awakening Foundation, after consulting with other women's organizations, has come up with a list of recommended candidates and a list of candidates to boycott," foundation chairwoman Fan Yun (范雲) said.
The groups' main criteria in compiling the recommendation list are whether lawmakers worked to promote legislation enhancing gender equality and women's rights or participated in relevant movements. Lawmakers with records of discriminatory statements were put on the boycott list, she said.
The top five candidates on the group's recommendation list are Huang Shu-ying (黃淑英) and Yang Fan-wan (楊芳婉) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hsu Chung-hsiung (徐中雄) and Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) of the Taiwan Solidarity Union.
All five are serving lawmakers who were the main advocates behind amendments to the Gender Equality Employment Law (性別平等工作法), Domestic Violence Prevention Act (家庭暴力防治法), Sexual Harassment Prevention Law (性騷擾防治法) and sections in the Civil Code related to women's and children's rights, the group said.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and independent legislator Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) also received commendations from the group because of their efforts in pushing for legislation concerning women's rights.
First-time candidates Chen Man-li (陳曼麗), Peng Yen-wen (彭渰雯) and Wang Fang-ping (王芳萍) of the Green Party Taiwan, and Annie Lee (李安妮) of the Taiwan Solidarity Union were also commended for their active participation in the women's rights movement.
The DPP's Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), Lin Chun-mo (林重謨), Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) and Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) were put on the boycott list for their discriminatory statements against women, Fan said.
"From the lists we can see that many of the women-friendly candidates are from smaller parties, while many of the gender-unfriendly lawmakers are from the nation's two major parties," Fan said. "We therefore would like to urge voters to give smaller parties a chance to play a key role in the legislature."
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