Formal organizations, with all female membership, have moved away from limiting their social concerns to traditional areas such as child care and hospital service. They now address broader social goals. The move is an indication of the more thorough integration of women into all parts of society, in line with their economic impact in the marketplace during recent decades of economic development. Things are just no longer the same for women and their organizations.
One of the first women's organizations to take a vocal public stand last year was a senior citizen among local groups: the YWCA. The Young Women's Christian Association in Taipei led a boycott against imported commodities because price-gouging businessmen were charging unreasonably high prices for imported goods.
Soon thereafter a fresh stream of women's associations suddenly appeared, engaging in a series of social movements. One of the first public demonstrations by women earned high approval ratings: they protested against the importers of newly available foreign cigarette brands; the importers had hired people to hand out free samples to local youth as they walked down the street. After the women brought it to the attention of the public, the importers found themselves suddenly very unpopular.
Other protest demonstrations have been directed in support of various environmental issues, against the inhumane trading in underage prostitutes, and against unfair employment practices by both the public and private sectors.
These social activities have both startled and impressed the public. People now see another side of women that is much different from their traditional characteristics of silence and obedience, traits that have come to be expected of modern women as well. Changes, new directions, expanded roles—these are now the norm of modern women, forcing redefinitions of their place in society. A tide of spontaneous strength has begun to emerge, and it is taking form through alliances with each other.
Predictably, this process is based on past experience. Chinese women have a long history of forming alliances, only their essence varies at different times. According to Ku Yen-ling, an associate professor at National Chiao Tung University and a researcher on women's issues, "Most traditional Chinese women's associations such as YWCA, Zonta, the TPWA (Taiwan Provincial Women's Association), and the CWAAL (Chinese Women's Anti-Aggression League) have a long history and have worked on larger scale activities."
YWCA and Zonta are both international women's associations, while the TPWA and CWAAL are closely related to the government or to the ruling party. A common feature for each of them is that they function in a framework guided by some larger organizational structure.
But women's associations founded in the 1980s, according to Professor Ku, are relatively more grass-roots in their orientation. They operate on a smaller scale, and most of them are not financially supported by any established parent organization. Generally speaking, they have the goal of supporting more rights and better social status for women, although some would not openly admit it. The reason? "Because traditionally it is thought 'not female' for women to strive for rights," she says. "Therefore, except for new groups like 'Awakening,' most women associations would rather not discuss these issues in public."
The reluctance to publicly assert rights is a common psychological complex, and is reflected in statements by Hsu Shen-shu, founder and president of the New Environment Housewives Association (NEHA), when she talks about her motives in setting up the organization.
Hsu says that, as a housewife, she observes that more and more social problems result from a lack of family harmony, which in turn results from housewives having attitudes toward life that are out of step with the times. As a result, many women live in the 1980s with ideologies that developed during the 18th or 19th Century. This is the real source of numerous family problems.
The target of the association is to encourage housewives to step out of their homes—once their whole world—and accept new ideas so that they'll become genuine contemporary women," Hsu says.
Despite this orientation, since the NEHA was founded in January of this year, it has become better known to the public as an environment protection league, as its name indicates. Hsu explains that targeting environment protection is her "bait" because she knows quite well women's state of mind—they are not enthusiastic about overtly pushing for women's rights.
Hsu says that women's associations have always been formed to cope with the needs of the time. The CWAAL, for example, was formed in 1950 as a way of bringing servicemen's wives together to sew uniforms for the armed forces. In this way, the members of CWAAL not only made contributions to the country, but also earned extra income for their families. Likewise, the TPWA helps mediate family disputes and offers assistance to women who face other types of misfortune. Both associations have stressed the traditional women's morals of the "three obediences"—a woman should obey her father before marriage, her husband during married life, and her sons in widowhood—and the "four virtues" of fidelity, physical charm, propriety in speech, and efficiency in needlework.
The YWCA has worked in a somewhat different but complementary direction for many years. Its main function, Hsu says, is to help women elevate their general quality of life. As Taiwan has changed from an agricultural to an industrial society, the biggest alteration confronting women has been in the time now saved because of modern conveniences and smaller nuclear families.
In years past, the YWCA has consistently provided many learning classes such as flower-arranging, foreign languages, cooking skills, and crafts like Chinese knot-tying, which appealed especially to middle class women. But intrinsically these classes are not so different from training for women of earlier times; beyond the value of the skill, women could kill surplus time while remaining at home.
"But always being learners of this sort is not a constructive way of life for modern women. They will be tired of that sooner or later," says Hsu. Modern women seek broader horizons, and new organizations are blossoming in response to their needs.
Hsu thinks these relatively young associations for women have their own limitations as well. The organization called "Awakening," for example, makes it clear that it will struggle for women's rights and higher status in society. This orientation makes it difficult for some women to join, Hsu says, because "most women still give priority attention to taking care of their families." They fear their families would be displeased with them if they state clearly that they are pro-feminist. "That's why the development of Awakening can not be very quick," she adds.
Other new organizations have similar problems. The Taipei Women's Development Center (TWDC), and the Warm Life Association are cases in point. Both have strong commitments to service. The former helps women who suddenly shift from dependents to supporters of their families because of tragedies such as the death or serious injury of their husbands. The Center assists them to be economically independent and provides psychological support. The latter association is designed for assisting divorced women.
But there are still many women who will not align themselves with either traditional or newly founded women associations. Hsu says there is an assortment of reasons for this.
"Feminism seems too radical to them; they don't want to associate with divorced women; they don't like the idea of being 'contaminated by the unluckiness' of the members of TWDC; and they aren't interested in studying crafts all the time. But since they are no longer so needed by their families as ancient housewives were, many of them fall into a low tide of 'housewives symptoms.' According to Dr. Li Feng of National Taiwan University Hospital, these are the result of an easier lifestyle coupled with a lack of enthusiasm for daily life. Therefore, they are never really independent and confident of themselves. This is very possibly a source of many family problems. A fundamental way to prevent this is to help these women find a sense of achievement."
Hsu certainly has done her part to assist those in search of personal relevance in modern society. Two years ago, a couple of professors with expertise in environmental protection became especially concerned about the degradation of Taiwan's environment and decided to do something about it. They began publishing the New Environment magazine, which promotes environmental protection. Hsu participated in the venture from the very beginning, learning both the theory and practice of environmental action groups. She also saw a chance to bring these key issues to the attention of the public.
"Everyone can be a source of pollution, therefore environmental protection is an issue related to everyone. Among those people involved with the magazine, I happened to be a housewife instead of a 'busy' expert. Therefore, I thought why not put these environmental ideals into practice by involving other housewives like myself?"
Thus, the New Environment Housewives Association was born, targeting an ostensibly neutral subject—environmental protection. In addition to the universality of environmental issues, Hsu believed that the subject was not too sensitive to be accepted by housewives and the public. But by participating NEHA's activities, members not only contribute to the environmental protection movement, they also learn how to cope better with modern life.
"They will never be lost again because they are needed by the association and by society. The housewives' symptoms are cured while our environment is improved," she says.
Hsu adds that at the beginning she had high hopes that her organization's ideals would be widely embraced by local women. She was not disappointed. On the day the organization was founded, more than 100 women registered. The total has already increased to 400.
After its foundation, NEHA promoted many environmental protection ideas and launched a series of social activities that received broad approval from the mass media and the public. The organization stressed that environmental protection should begin on the family level. It advocated better trash classification and utilization of waste materials to save natural resources; it encouraged housewives to reduce the use of plastic bags, the number one enemy of environmental protection; and it asked manufacturers to simplify packaging and to use materials that could be recycled.
To protect consumers, NEHA also responded to the boycott of those foreign goods that were still being sold at high prices despite lower tariffs. Local middlemen and retailers were keeping huge profits for themselves by not passing on savings to their customers. The morning of January 24th this year found members of NEHA taking to the streets. They protested with placards in front of selected Western fast foods franchise stores because of unreasonable high prices. A hamburger in Taipei, for example, costs two to three times what it would in Tokyo or Los Angeles.
Hsu admits that, in the beginning, the organization intended to engage in the "pure" environmental protection movement. "But indeed, in our daily lives nothing goes beyond the field of 'the environment.' Therefore, we have a five-year plan with a different theme for each year. These are women and environment, women and population, women and culture, women and human rights, and women and international society."
The NEHA has been urging the government to pay more attention to environmental protection. Hsu explains: "Realizing that our own manpower and finances are limited, we have coordinated with relevant government agencies or private associations to better serve our purpose. For instance, we collaborated well with Chuang Chin-yuan, former director of the Bureau of Environmental Protection (predecessor of the recently established Environmental Protection Administration) under the Executive Yuan, which allocated NT$400,000 (over US$13,000) to purchase shopping bags in support of our activities." The large, reusable bags are used instead of the numerous plastic bags that shoppers normally end up taking home each time they go shopping.
There is an intelligent game plan here. Hsu believes that by actively engaging in social activities, the status of women will certainly be elevated, and the environmental protection movement will finally combine with the women's movement.
Although NEHA's activities have changed the "passive" image of housewives, surprisingly enough its members are actually very "conservative." For example, the organization is planning to set up a foundation with one target being "to enhance women's status." But many members are sensitive to the wording and have asked that it be changed to say "to enhance women's quality," fearing the original wording would irritate their husbands. Concerns about moving too fast and too far into a position identified as "feminist" are obviously still very common.
According to Professor Ku Yen-ling, among the existing women's associations in Taiwan, only Awakening has clear characteristics of the "women's movement" and openly admits as much. The predecessor of Awakening was a small group of professional women who, during the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, got together irregularly in Taipei to exchange professional knowledge and personal experiences. After repeated reflection and discussions, they found that many of their personal problems came not from psychological problems, but as a result of deviations from values and regulations set by a paternal society.
Because many women's publications, including the women's pages of newspapers, ignore the changing times, they still propagate traditional but untimely women's virtues; few ever allow any criticism of these paternal values.
In response to this situation, these professional women fell obliged to set up a means to speak for women and their interests. Awakening magazine was thus created in February 1982 under the leadership of Li Yuan-cheng.
The basic purposes of the publication are: "To awaken women, to support women, and to establish a society where both sexes are equal and harmonious." Over the past five years, Awakening has introduced many representative works of Western feminism, reviewed works of Chinese and foreign literature and cinema from the viewpoint of feminism, discussed the revision and formulation of women-related laws and regulations, introduced biographies of Chinese feminism leaders since the late Ching Dynasty, and reported worldwide women-related news.
As a part of its active promotion of feminism, Awakening has chosen a theme of activity for each year since 1983. These have included such topics as "women's potential and development," the problem of "sexual harassment," "the mutual growth of the sexes," and "the equal right of employment." All of the themes provoked wide-spread response and discussion.
Although it is also restricted by limited manpower and finances, Awakening does its best to reflect updated women's issues. For instance, when the Eugenic Protection Law was under discussion in the Legislative Yuan three years ago, Awakening and seven other women's associations signed and submitted a written statement to state their case to the Legislative Yuan. They also assembled some 20 women to be observers at the meetings of the Legislative Yuan, directly encouraging passage of a law that would further protect the health of women.
In January of this year, Awakening aligned with 32 other associations to initiate an "anti-population trading" movement on a large scale. The women were trying to rescue underage aboriginal girls from becoming the victims of sex dealers. After a demonstration on Hwa-hsi Street, where many of the violators are found, public outcry compelled action. The police established the cheng feng chuan an (a special team for correcting social mood), a task force to deal with the problem. Later, the Taiwan Women's Rescue Association was founded to help care for and rehabilitate the young girls.
Some people think Awakening is a radical women's association. Cheng Chih-hui, an Awakening committee member offers qualified agreement: "If 'radical' means we ask for fundamental reform, it is. Although we also adopt mild, compromising strategies, we seek thorough equality, not partial or superficial equality. We presume that a pluralistic society can tolerate not only mild, traditional women's movements, but also more radical ones."
Professor Ku thinks that the development of the women's movement in Taiwan has lagged far behind other countries. The Women's Research Program, the first and so far the only women's research center, was established in 1985 under the sponsorship of the Asia Foundation. Thus far it has functioned mainly as a reference and information center.
Except for a few scattered courses dealing with family or marriage, no university in Taiwan offers courses about women's issues from the viewpoint of feminism. "This is partly because of the general ideology of our women," Ku says. "Professor Hsiao Hsin-huang once talked about the characteristics of Taiwan's middle class. He said that they ask and hope for reform and progress, but meanwhile they won't advocate reforms themselves because of their own vested interests. I think a similar complex prevails among women's associations in Taiwan."
In Ku's opinion, many leaders of women's associations lack so-called "female consciousness." She says, "People here tend to believe that if women work hard, they can do as well as men do, and intentionally or unintentionally ignore many unfair restrictions imposed on women. But if you really believe in and clearly understand the essence of feminism, struggling for women's rights is as upright as struggling for human rights."
These are strong sentiments, and Ku is the first to admit that women are in a transition period. The phenomenon of "reluctance to be different" is difficult to avoid. "When women get together to form an association or to participate in a collective movement, society tends to expect them to contribute their strength to others instead of struggling for their own ends. The NEHA, for example, protects the environment for the good of the whole population, and the YWCA led a boycott for the interest of all consumers," Ku explains.
There are many other women's "growth groups," such as the Modern Women foundation set up by Council woman Pan Wei-kang in hopes of enhancing women's quality, and many "reading associations for mothers" that bring housewives together for reading and conversation on topics of mutual interest. These sorts of associations naturally receive recognition more easily and without controversy by a society that holds to more traditional attitudes about the place of women in that society.
On the other hand, if women initiate a movement in order to strive for their rights, or to criticize improper treatment of women, it will be generally considered offensive and thus will be confronted with more pressure from society. For instance, when Awakening began fighting for sexual equality five years ago, its efforts won limited response. And most people still seem to hold indifferent or even defensive attitudes toward the organization. In short, Taiwan's society still expects women to play a selfless, contributory role.
The situation is gradually changing, however, and the momentum seems to be more positive, at least as far as women are concerned. Dr. Nora Chiang, coordinator of the Women's Research Program at National Taiwan University, believes that the consciousness of women's rights and of political democracy in the larger environment are the keys to the development of the women's movement.
Her viewpoint is supported by Professor Ku's analysis of recent activity in Taiwan. "The democratic political reforms the government has engaged in this year—the most obvious manifestation is the lifting of the Emergency Decree in July—has had great influence on the women's movement. It has speeded up women's consciousness of equal rights. Besides, seeing that many so called 'self rescue' street demonstrations were tolerated, it is natural for women to search for the similar ways of expression."
An instance of this occurred with the demonstration against trading in underage prostitutes. When Awakening, along with other women's associations, launched the demonstration, many women's associations refused to participate at first in fear that it would "spoil their image." However, after seeing that the public had a positive, supportive attitude toward the movement, there was a change of heart.
An even bigger demonstration was held in August of this year, this time protesting the unfair treatment of women employees at the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, and the demonstrators included members of those organizations that had previously refused to march in the streets. Ku predicts that women's associations will cooperate with each other more closely in the future, especially as women gradually adjust their traditional views.
"Although there are many women's associations now, their strengths are too scattered to form very efficient pressure. 'Unity is strength' is still a good advice to all women's associations," agrees Cheng Chih-hui of Awakening.
"Partly because they are new to forming alliances, many leaders of women's associations are stingy about supporting and flattering each other, like their male counterparts usually do. They ignore the fact that by elevating others, they are elevated too," Ku says.
But, as Hsu Shen-shu of NEHA says, "We are still learning." Clearly, there have been many lessons learned in recent months, and it is reasonably certain that in the future women are likely to do more than simply give the organizations encouragement from the sidelines. In increasing numbers they are going to sign up and participate themselves.