AI summary
Summary of article:
The New York Times reported that Taiwan has promoted women’s political participation through a long-term guaranteed quota system for women, placing female political representation at the forefront of the world and proving that gender quotas not only undermine democracy, but also increase the competitiveness of candidates.
new York Times Reporter Li Yuan wrote in a column on the 21st that when the United States looks at Taiwan, it often focuses on the potential conflict between Taiwan and China, or Taiwan’s leading position in the field of advanced chip manufacturing. However, behind the “Silicon Shield”, Taiwan is not only a vibrant democratic society, but one of the world’s longest experiments in political equality.
For decades, Taiwan has promoted women’s political participation through a women’s guarantee quota system. Today, female political representation is at the top in the world. 42% of seats in the Legislative Yuan are held by women, the highest proportion in Asia and on par with the Nordic countries. Taiwan elected its first female president in 2016Tsai Ing-Wen She was successfully re-elected four years later; She has also been elected continuously since 2000Annette Lu and Xiao Meiqin, two female vice presidents.
However, new research shows that very few women are actually elected based on the guaranteed quota for women. Huang Changling, a professor at National Taiwan University who has studied gender politics for more than 20 years, said: “People often argue that elections should solely select the best and most capable people.”
But Taiwan’s experience shows that “the gender quota system allows a society to truly select the best and most capable people.” “Otherwise, the patriarchal system excludes qualified women from competing,” she said.
According to data from the intergovernmental organization International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), electoral gender quota systems have gradually become popular around the world since the 1990s. More than 130 countries, including more than 20 countries in Europe, have established quotas for women to participate in elections through their constitutions, electoral systems or party rules.
However, Taiwan’s women’s quota system started earlier. Huang Changling pointed out that the Constitution adopted by the Republic of China in 1946 specified that women’s seats should be reserved for elections. This was a result of the women’s movement that began in the 1920s and the socialist ideological trend in China at that time. Civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party led to the relocation of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949, although it imposed authoritarian rule during the mobilization and counter-insurgency periods in the following decades, still using guaranteed quotas of 5% to 10% for women in local elections.
When Taiwan began democratizing in 1987, some feminist organizations worried that the guaranteed quota system for women might lead the outside world to think that women could not be selected based on their strengths. However, he ultimately decided to support it and successfully promoted four rounds of major reforms over the next decades. The law, which came into force in 2002, stipulates that in constituencies with more than four seats for local referendum representatives, at least one female seat is guaranteed to be elected, prompting political parties to recruit and nominate female candidates. In 2030, the guarantee quota will be increased to guarantee at least 1 seat of any gender for every 3 seats, i.e. there should be at least 1 woman and 1 man for every 3 seats.
Huang Changling studied data from six election cycles from 2002 to 2022 and found that the competitiveness of female candidates has increased significantly, and the number of constituencies needed to activate the women’s guaranteed quota has decreased from 31 in 2002 to only 4 in 2022. Today women rarely need to rely on guaranteed quotas to get elected, but the system is still important in ensuring that women receive party nominations.
What would have happened if Taiwan had never implemented a quota system for women? Japan provides a very good comparison. Women gained the right to vote in both Japan and the Republic of China after World War II, and the electoral systems are similar. However, Japan has never established guaranteed seats for women. Today, women constitute only 15% of the House of Representatives. Women hold 28% of the seats in the US Congress, which ranks 84th in the world in terms of the proportion of female members in national legislative bodies.
Summary FAQ
-
Because Taiwan has long implemented a guaranteed quota system for women, women have continued to increase their representation in Congress and local politics. Today, the number of female seats in the Legislative Yuan has reached 42%, the highest in Asia and on par with the Nordic countries.
-
Huang Changling’s research found that between 2002 and 2022, the number of constituencies requiring guaranteed quotas decreased from 31 to 4, suggesting that the competitiveness of female candidates has increased significantly; Now the more important function of this system is to encourage political parties to nominate women.
-
The case of Taiwan shows that gender quotas can break the exclusionary effect of the patriarchal system on women’s participation in elections and allow more qualified women to enter the contest; In comparison, in Japan there is no guarantee of seats and the proportion of women in parliament is still quite low.
