Political Empowerment for Women in the DPP
by The Department of Women’s Development, DPP, Taiwan

I. Introduction
In this report we will briefly introduce and discuss the Taiwan Experience, the development of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the political involvement of women in Taiwan.  We will explain the necessity of the DPP’s Department of Women’s Development’s (DWD) advocacy for the policy of a minimun of 25 percent of the party nomination list be occupied by women (referred to as the 1/4 Women Policy) and discuss its effect on the women’s political  involvement in the DPP after the policy’s implementation.  Overall, we have discovered that the policy truly encourages more highly educated young women to participate in politics.

II. 	Background
The “Taiwan Experience” has usually been called an economic miracle.  Taiwan’s per  capita income has risen from $145 in the 1950s, through the economic growth in the 1970s and 80s to the $12,226 in 1997.  Taiwan is ranked the fifteenth in world trade and its social production structure has gradually evolved into a service-oriented industry (64% of the entire production industry).  The literacy rate of the fifteen-year-old and above is 94%.  Nevertheless, most people know little about the long period of political oppression Taiwanese people endured behind this economic miracle.

In almost forty years of the Martial Law period, freedom of speech and political participation were restricted and people could not freely express their political aspirations.  The DPP, Taiwan’s largest oppositional party, impelled the peaceful transformation of the Taiwanese society from authoritarian to democratic.  In 1986, when it was still illegal to organize political parties, the long-time democracy movement “Tangwai” (non-KMT) activists, despite the danger of military trials and imprisonment, established the DPP.  This monumental event triggered the lift of the Martial Law in 1987.  The National Assembly was completely re-elected in 1991 and the Legislative House in 1992.  Tremendous political reform followed and in 1995, the president of Taiwan was directly elected by the people for the very first time.  At the same time, three-party politics was shaping up and Taiwan’s democracy gradually solidified.

III. 	Taiwanese Women’s Social Involvement
Unfortunately, Taiwan’s economic growth and political transformation do not reflect a rise of the status of Taiwanese women.  Looking at the gender ratio of the higher education, the ratio of the college-educated men to women is 6:4, Masters 7:3 and PhD’s 8:2, while the female employment rate has remained relatively unchanged at 45% from 1986 to 1998.  Women’s average salary is only men’s 67%.  About two-thirds of the women left the labor market after marriage or pregnancy.  Due to the lack of a good social welfare support system and beliefs in traditional values, women have had great difficulty voicing in public.  They often are categorized to be only in the private and play the role of caretakers, which should actually be performed by the government.  This phenomenon is even more serious in the traditionally male-dominated political realm.  Women are very hard to find in politics.

Looking at the result of the 1997 local government elections, there are only 2 female county chiefs and city mayors out of a total of 23 counties and cities.  In the Congress, female legislators are only 14% and National Assemblywomen 18%.  Compared to the fact that Taiwan’s population is half female, the proportion of the female political representation is truly uneven.

Fewer female politicians only means fewer female voices heard in the political decision-making system and process.  The possibility of the women’s rights being ignored or sacrificed becomes greater.  From the example of today’s policy-making and budget distribution, it is not hard to see policies or budgets concerning women are usually considered marginal and insignificant.  This only shows that asking male policy-makers to automatically consider women’s needs when making policy is almost totally impossible.

IV. 	Women’s Involvement in the DPP
The DPP originated from Taiwan’s nativeland democracy movement.  It is a grassroots political party.  Earlier when Taiwan was still under the Martial law, in order to break through and overcome KMT’s authoritarian regime, democracy activists (mostly male) organized a series of protests.  These protests seriously agitated the regime and many activists were arrested.

In 1986, the Taiwanese democracy activists established the DPP against KMT and in 1987 when the Martial Law was lifted, more and more public official posts were opened up for election.  However, at this time, many of the activists were still not released from prison.  In order to have their husbands’ political career continued, many of the activists’ wives decided to run for offices.  Due to people’s support for the democracy movement, most of the “wives” won elections easily.  We call this model of the DPP women’s political involvement “widow politics.”

Thus, historically the DPP was a male-dominated party and the few woman politicians usually were regarded as men’s representatives or substitutes.

V. 	The Strategy of Promoting Women’s Participation in Politics: The One-Fourth Woman Policy
The arrival of the former director of the DWD, Ms. Peng Wan-ru presented a turning point for the above-mentioned phenomenon.  Ms. Peng was a long-time activist  in the women’s and democracy movements.  From her experiences, she believed the quickest way to carry out women’s movement and effectively improve the Taiwanese women’s situations is through political power to forcefully straighten the uneven, unequal social gender structure.  However, it seems highly unlikely to accomplish this in the context of a male-dominated decision-making system.  What is more important at this point is that more assertive women should join the system and have their own voices in politics.

Thus, in order to create more opportunities within the party for women to participate, Ms. Peng proposed the policy of guaranteeing a minimum of one-fourth female nomination for every category of candidacy for both party and public official posts.  This strategy sets out to completely change the rules of the game and allows women who traditionally holds less political resources to obtain fairer opportunity.  This policy will encourage more capable women to participate in politics.

It is not hard to imagine that Ms. Peng’s proposal encountered unprecedented male resistance within the party.  And on the night of November 31, 1996, just as the policy was sent to the DPP National Representatives Congress for approval, Ms. Peng was raped and murdered at the suburbs of Kaohsiung.  She suffered thirty five stabs.  Ms. Peng’s murder (the killer still not found today) shocked the entire Taiwanese society and struck hard at the DPP from within.  Within a month of Ms. Peng’s death, besides the DPP’s approval on the One-Fourth Women Policy, the Law of Protection Against Sexual Assault which had remained buried for more than a few years in the Legislative House was immediately passed.  Because of Ms. Peng’s death, the entire Taiwanese society suddenly awakened to a high consciousness for women’s movement and issues.  Women’s active participation in politics became inevitable.

VI. 	The Implementation and Reflections on the One-Fourth Woman Policy
At the same time, the approval of the One-Fourth Woman Policy has made gender consciousness one of the DPP’s central issues.  In June, 1998, the DPP became the first party in Taiwan to pass a provision of Protection Against Sexual Harassment and Sexual Discrimination in Working Environment, protecting the staff of the DPP from harmful languages and behaviors and providing victims with necessary legal support.

VII. 	Conclusion
The DPP is the largest oppositional party in Taiwan.  Its determination to actively encourage women’s participation in politics is contagious.  The determination not only created excellent policies within the party but also motivated the other political parties to pay more serious attention to women’s issues and participation in politics.  Under today’s rigorous party competition, promoting more outstanding women to take part in politics has become a major goal for all the major parties in Taiwan.  We believe this should be the most significant contribution Ms. Peng Wan-ru’s sacrifice has made to the Taiwanese women’s movement.