Voters in Taiwan head to the polls on November 26 to elect a wide range of public officials, including mayors, county magistrates, and city council members.

The local polls, being held in Taiwan's 22 cities and counties, are seen as a test of support for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) before presidential and parliamentary elections set for 2024. They also feature the highest number of female candidates in 30 years.

At least 24 female candidates have been nominated for the mayoral and county magistrate races. The DPP and the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party have together nominated 14 female candidates. Several smaller parties also have women candidates on the ballot.

This maintains a growing trend of women participating in elections and holding public office in Taiwan.

In the 2020 parliamentary election, a total of 47 female candidates,  more than 40% of the total, were elected, making Taiwan the country with the highest percentage of female lawmakers in Asia. Additionally, Taiwan elected its first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, in 2016.

Taiwan breaks the glass ceiling

"This trend shows that Taiwan has gone beyond gender barriers in public affairs," Kolas Yotaka, a candidate running in the Hualien county magistrate race for the ruling DPP, told DW. "The glass ceiling for women has gradually been broken."

Chang-Ling Huang, an expert on gender and politics at National Taiwan University (NTU), said that women account for around 35% of the candidates on the ballot in this year's local elections.

She explained that Taiwan has a long political tradition of quotas reserved for women in elections at all levels, as stipulated by the country's constitution, which was passed in 1946.

While the original quotas reserved for women were relatively low, they have gradually increased over the years, with important changes taking place at the local level.

"Based on the local system law, which came into effect in 1999, for every four elected seats, one seat should be reserved for female candidates," Huang told DW.

"When we look at local city councils across Taiwan today, the percentage of elected female council members in six major cities has surpassed 30%," she said.

Huang added that although the quotas encouraged more women to run for office, these did not necesssarily affect the results.

"Research shows that while the quotas reserved for female candidates have increased over the years, the proportion of women who rely on the reserved quotas to be elected have actually decreased," she said. 

Women in politics still face obstacles

However, despite the growing percentage of women being elected to office in Taiwan, obstacles remain to women's political participation, Huang pointed out.

This includes the media focusing more on a female candidate's appearance rather than policy proposals.

"The media loves to describe some female politicians as ‘beautiful legislators' or ‘beautiful spokeswomen,'" she said.

"Their appearances or outfits are usually the subjects of commentary by the general public and media." 

Additionally, women with families have to strike a difficult balance between being a mother and being a politician, she added.

Female politicians also face sexual harassment, especially on the internet.

"A high percentage of internet users ruthlessly use inappropriate terms to insult and criticize political figures," Huang explained, adding that sexual slurs are often aimed at female candidates.

"When female politicians are criticized, it often has to do with their gender. Women are also at high risk of being sexually harassed in parliament or during campaign seasons," she said.

Liang-Chun Lin, a Taipei city councilor running for reelection as an independent candidate this year, told DW that while being called "pretty" may appear to be a compliment for female politicians, what is more important to most women in politics is to be praised for the policies they've proposed or for their performance.

"At a time when the proportion of men and women in politics is becoming more equal in Taiwan, the number of women in politics should no longer be the main focus of improving women's rights in politics," she told DW. "Instead, examining whether Taiwanese people and politicians have enough awareness about gender equality is more crucial."

Is Taiwan an example for Asia?

Lev Nachman, a political science professor at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taiwan, said that the fact that no one thinks twice about women running for office shows how gender equality has been institutionalized in Taiwanese politics.

"It's not just about rules mandating women's participation in politics, but how the rule of women's participation in politics has been institutionalized by civil society in Taiwan," he told DW.

Across the Taiwan Strait in China, however, the picture looks very different. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) concluded its 20th Party Congress last month, no woman made it into the 24-member Politburo, the party's top decision-making body. This is the first time that women are completely absent from it in a quarter of a century.

"The absence of women in China's top leadership body goes against the global trend, and against the CCP's own history," Huang said. "The party's socialist tradition actually attaches great importance to social representation," she added.

DPP candidate Yotaka pointed out that in terms of women's political participation in the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan is certainly more similar to other democracies around the world than to China.

"Taiwan's development as a whole is in line with the global trend, and this is what we have been pursuing. Human rights, gender equality, fairness, and justice are important bridges that allow Taiwan to be very close to other countries and to be able to form alliances and cooperation," she said.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn