The traditional dividing lines between the genders in politics appear to be gradually eroding as more and more women enter the political arena. The election of the island's first female vice president may have blurred them to the point of invisibility.
Finns made history on February 6 this year when they chose Social Democrat Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen as their first female head of state in a tight runoff election. Afterwards, Halonen was quoted as saying that her election would be a fresh boost for gender equality, already doing pretty well in her egalitarian Nordic nation. "I think this will encourage women by showing that a man or a woman can equally well make it in any office," she said.
Does this work for Taiwan? It seems so. In the recent presidential poll, the Democratic Progressive Party's Chen Shui-bian and his female running mate Annette Lu, beat four other sets of candidates in the race for the country's top spots. "Taiwan today became the first country in the world with a Confucian cultural heritage to elect a woman vice president," Lu said in her victory address "The Birth of a New Taiwan." "This election victory, therefore, is not just a triumph for democracy, but also a milestone for gender equality in government."
By any measure, it was a pretty strange precedent for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to set. Several surveys commissioned by the party showed that its male members greatly outnumber females. Hung Yung-tai, director of National Chengchi University's Election Study Center, says that this can be traced back to an earlier period in the DPP's history, when it would take to the streets in protest at the drop of a hat. Those highly public episodes, although staged as a wake-up call for democracy, gave the party a reputation for turbulence amounting to violence, rendering it unattractive to many women.
It was not until the young and vivacious Sisy Chen took on the job of the party's Culture and Information Department Director and began to craft its publicity that the DPP came to be seen as women-friendly. Campaign promises by Chen that one-fourth of his Cabinet members would be female also brought many advocates of gender equality on board. "We've reached the point of no return where female job participation is concerned," Hung says. "They'll become more and more able to govern, and men will gradually accept this trend."
So, does Annette Lu's win mean that male participation in government is on the way out? Hardly. Women here are still having to struggle for the right to engage in public affairs. Of the legislature's 224 members, only forty-three are women, and that is one of the highest ratios in any of the island's government bodies. Of forty-three Cabinet members, just six are female. Taipei City Council, although chaired by a woman, is hardly a bastion of gender equality either, with seventeen females out of a total of fifty-two councilors. Cities in the south fare even worse, with Taichung City Council having six women out of a total of forty-five members, and Kaohsiung five out of forty-four.
The 1995 United Nations Conference on Women adopted the slogan "Fifty-Fifty by 2000" as the ideal government participation ratio for the sexes. While Taiwan is not a member of the international body, it is nevertheless keen to achieve this ambition, and at the highest level of all it has done so. "Taiwan can be proud of being one of the few countries in the world to fulfill that goal," Lu said in her acceptance address. "For me, this achievement is the culmination of thirty years of struggling for human rights."
That is no empty boast. The new VP spent more than five years in jail for sedition, the result of a speech she made criticizing the KMT in the days when that was, to put it mildly, a risky career move. Instead of letting imprisonment break her spirit, she channelled the experience into a driving force that later led her to government jobs such as section chief in the Cabinet's Law and Regulations Commission, legislator, national policy adviser to the ROC president, and (her most recent position) Taoyuan County magistrate.
Lu was not the only woman in the five sets of candidates this year. Chu Hui-liang stood with Hsu Hsin-liang on an independent ticket, placing fourth in the elections. Both Chu and Lu share many of the stereotypical attributes of Taiwan's female politicians, with a no-nonsense approach, single status, and a reputation for having somehow beaten a system that regards "women in power" as an oxymoron.
Chu does not have the background of suffering and perseverance that made Lu such a visible figure, but she is still a formidable crusader. After beginning her career as a researcher with the National Palace Museum, she lectured at colleges throughout the 1980s, becoming an associate professor in 1993. She was elected a legislator in 1996, after which she took an active role in the drafting and revision of several women's rights laws. Through her work, she came to a realization that women were still the targets of abuse, sexual discrimination, and other unfair treatment in the workplace. "The most effective way of improving the current condition of women and highlighting their issues is to encourage more of them to participate in politics," Chu says. "The only way we're going to see substantial improvements on the gender equality front is by formulating tougher regulations and pushing for their effective implementation."
Chu knows that is still a long way off. The number of women participating in politics remains low and is rising only slowly. "Women have always been underrepresented in Taiwan politics because of the shortcomings of the system here," she argues. "What's worse is that these shortcomings have made politics uninteresting to women." She attributes the shortage of females in the upper halls of government not to a shortage of talent but to a lack of recognition on the part of men. She notes that many female politicians remain single in order to devote themselves to their work. "The idea that women should stay at home and take care of the house while men are the family breadwinners is still prevalent in this society," she says. "What really aggravates the situation is that the government hasn't yet devised comprehensive, forward-looking welfare policies regarding care of children and the elderly."
According to this former vice presidential hopeful, in the past, only two types of women entered Taiwan's political circles. The first group consisted of women who were willing to play an auxiliary role, while the other was made up of females who had become so aggravated by a particular problem that they devoted their lives to fixing it. Women who join politics for the second reason, Chu says, have the advantage of a better perspective, because they are not backed by any clan, party, or organization with an ax to grind. "More and more of these kinds of women are getting involved in politics," she says. "That's very encouraging."
But there is a paradox here. Women in Taiwan have few opportunities to take part in politics unless they do have the backing of a major political party. Peng Yen-wen, head of the Awakening Foundation, one of the island's largest women's rights groups, notes that few female politicians have been given the chance to cultivate the experience that a top leader needs. "In the past, men in government were put on the fast promotion track and were given a lot of opportunities to rotate among various posts and gain experience. Women weren't," she says. "All too often, women have been promoted in the Cabinet only after some terrible crime against a woman made the headlines."
Like Peng, Chu Hui-liang is in no doubt that there are plenty of talented women around; the problem is getting their talents recognized and properly assigned. The island is still a long way from the point where a woman could be entrusted with the Ministry of National Defense portfolio, for example. "Each gender has its own concerns," she says. "Basically, men pay more attention to politics, finance, and foreign relations, whereas women are more concerned with issues like education, culture, community development, conservation of natural resources, and social welfare. A nation ruled mainly by men is less likely to be in tune with women's needs, so women are still a disadvantaged group."
The DPP is the only established party to have nominated a woman in an ROC presidential election. Annette Lu calls this a major breakthrough that illustrates the progress of her party, even though it has only been through two elections. "It sends a clear signal that the DPP isn't just boasting about being democratic, egalitarian, and progressive," she says. "It's put the concept of gender equality into practice, and this is an important landmark in our march toward true democracy." Democratic government, she notes, must be of the people, by the people, and for the people--with the emphasis on people. In other words, everyone, women as well as men, should be eligible to participate in the policymaking and executive processes. "Women have different concerns, aspirations, and needs," Lu points out. "And they can't afford to remain a silent majority. If women have no power, all the ideals are just so much wishful thinking."
Chu and Lu were not the first women to run for vice president of the ROC. That honor goes to Wang Ching-feng, who stood with Chen Li-an as an independent in the ROC's first presidential election in 1996. "Wang Ching-feng's participation was more of a symbolic move, since she didn't have any real political experience," Peng says. "This time around, however, Lu and Chu both had rich administrative experience that brought them closer to actually being able to seize the reins. Lu's election proves that."
Wang, whose background was in law and social work, feels that if she had been a man, the island's political double standards would have highlighted her humanitarian work and conveniently overlooked her lack of political experience. "My participation in the 1996 election marked a breakthrough in traditional, or I should say, stereotypical, thinking by showing that women could take part in this level of election as well," Wang says. "I think that's its major significance."
The former candidate has now returned to fighting for the rights of the underprivileged. One of her most important projects is representing the "comfort women" who were sex slaves during the Japanese occupation period between 1895 and 1945. Her long -time involvement with social causes sometimes makes her feel helpless. "Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are relatively powerless to get things done," she says. "Only the government possesses the kind of resources needed to bring about real change." Indeed, it is for that very reason that she decided to throw herself into the 1996 electoral race, despite her dislike of politics and public scrutiny.
But can being vice president "bring about real change"? President-elect Chen Shui-bian has emphasized that his vice president will have a voice and be a genuine partner in governing the nation. Lu herself feels confident. "Government has long been dominated by men, and national resources have been largely spent on things like national defense," she says. "In comparison, women are often limited to the private sector, where problems over birth, aging, sickness, and death are rife. The money that our government has spent on social welfare is minimal, compared to what's been spent on defense, yet social welfare spending is necessary to protect the well -being of individuals and upgrade living standards generally."
Peng Yen-wen of the Awakening Foundation is particularly happy that Chen has promised to give high-ranking government jobs to women. "More women in the Cabinet would set an excellent example for both the public and private sectors," she says. "This in turn would lead to more of these women getting the chance to cultivate their skills and receive promotions. By bringing women into the power circle, you ensure that feminine issues will move from the periphery and become focal points for national policy. And that's the only way things are going to get better for women here."
Peng is in no doubt that, of the five sets of candidates, the Chen-Lu ticket promoted the best policies for women and demonstrated the greatest sincerity when addressing their problems. She acknowledges that in proposing Lu as his running mate, Chen had to overcome tremendous pressure from several different factions in his own party, all of them male-dominated. The fact that he nevertheless went ahead, nailing his colors to the mast of dual-gender participation in government, speaks volumes for him.
Peng was also impressed when Chen invited a number of female scholars to join his think tank. In her view, that decision put his program into the realm of the feasible, rather than leaving it as a collection of slogans. Moreover, Chen's policies on women's issues were made public before he turned his attention to cross-strait tensions and national defense. All this, according to Peng, points to genuine concern for women's rights on his part, compared with other candidates.
Prying men's fingers from the levers of power may be easier now that Lu has been elected, but will male subordinates listen to their female bosses? Lu Kuang-lei, department chief of Sports for All under the Cabinet's National Sports Council, says he feels good about dual-gender participation in government, having worked with many female supervisors over the last fifteen years. "Female bosses tend to be more thoughtful and cautious," he says. "That's their distinguishing feature. Their energy and perseverance aren't inferior to men's in any way."
A male official from the Ministry of the Interior, who did not want to be named, agrees that women in government leadership jobs do appear to be attentive and sensitive, while men can be a little careless. "When they're working together, the respective characteristics of the two sexes can result in a more comprehensive way of handling things," he says. If he has a criticism, it is that women in official capacities tend to be a little too capricious in their decisions. "Today they'll look at things this way, but tomorrow maybe it will be another way," he says. "When working with female bosses, we men have to pay more attention to their thinking and work habits. Otherwise, misunderstandings and conflicts can arise."
Former vice-presidential candidate Wang Ching-feng maintains that men often enter politics in search of wealth and power. By comparison, women politicians tend to be more idealistic and dedicated to the pursuit of social and political reforms. "Many of us don't like politics," she concedes. "But the fact is that it directly affects our lives. If we're going to improve politics, we need to temper the greed and Machiavellianism of the male-dominated political arena with softer, more humanitarian female attitudes."
But highlighting the differences between the sexes, whether scientifically proven or not, is unlikely to cut much ice with Annette Lu, Taiwan's new vice president. There is a danger that women may focus exclusively on women's problems. They cannot afford to do that. "I've always advocated the view that people are people first--only secondarily are they men or women," Lu says. That is one of the main reasons why she opted to engage in politics, which is concerned with the affairs of a nation as a whole, rather than concentrate solely on women's issues. For Lu, politics means cleaning up the process; pursuing truth, goodness and beauty; and upgrading women's status in society.
So what does this amount to in practice? Lu pledges that on taking office, she and Chen will actively promote "soft power." In other words, the development of national strength will henceforth focus more on human rights, education, culture, democracy, and high technology. Military might will still have a place--but it will also know its place, and be expected to stay there.
There are still plenty of women in Taiwan who have to live their lives overshadowed by threats of domestic violence and unfair treatment at work. There is little they can do to solve these problems by their own unaided efforts, and Lu is anxious to involve the government in such cases. "I certainly mean to strive to safeguard women's fundamental human rights to live and to be free from fear and want," she emphasizes. "As society continues to diversify, women must be given a fair opportunity to compete without discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Capable women should have opportunities for promotion. We must create a culture of equal opportunity where employment and promotion are concerned. That way, we'll cultivate female leaders for this country."
Lu's hardest task will be to dismantle the structure that is keeping women from having the option of taking part in the country's decision-making process. In the short term, don't expect Taiwan to rival the Scandinavian states for the number of women in government. But in the long term, Lu's example may just inspire the island's women to wake up and claim their rightful place.