Young, Female Candidates Hoping to Bring Change to Taiwan's Legislature
Taiwan's 2024 elections will see more female candidates running to become lawmakers than ever before. And all three parties are hoping that young women can project a fresh face onto national politics. But despite Taiwan's success in promoting gender equality, challenges remain for women in politics.
Transcript
00:00 "Welcome to the National Assembly."
00:03 Radio personality Irina Li is putting in the miles for what Taiwan calls the "land battle"
00:09 the hard graft needed to win over voters before polling day.
00:13 Li is representing Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang, or KMT,
00:17 a Chinese nationalist party with strong support among older generations.
00:21 "The right to vote is for the people."
00:25 But at 30 years old, Li is the youngest legislative candidate in the country,
00:30 and she's hoping to appeal to other young people,
00:33 who are wary of Beijing's claim over self-ruled Taiwan.
00:36 "When people see me, they support me.
00:39 They know Li Mingxuan, they like Li Mingxuan, they support Li Mingxuan.
00:43 And then they realise, 'Oh, she's nominated by the Kuomintang.
00:46 That feels different."
00:53 Just two months older than Li,
00:55 Huang Jie of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party
00:58 is now also running for a seat in a legislature,
01:01 competing in national politics for the first time.
01:05 Unlike the KMT, support among young voters is strong for her party,
01:09 which advocates Taiwan's independence from China.
01:13 But Huang says campaigning as a woman comes with its own set of challenges.
01:17 "Women are less capable,
01:19 or they feel that they're not professional enough,
01:22 or they have a lot of criticism of their appearance,
01:25 and their behavior,
01:28 and they're also quite income-intensive.
01:31 And even more so, they're quite income-intensive."
01:35 Jennifer Youyi Li of the smaller Taiwan People's Party
01:44 doesn't have the resources of the DPP and KMT.
01:47 But Li says her party has a better record on women's representation
01:51 than its two bigger rivals.
01:53 That's despite criticism of her party's leader,
01:56 presidential candidate Ke Wen-je, for sexist comments.
02:00 "Within the TPP,
02:02 we have just more female politicians or political workers within our party,
02:08 and even more than KMT and DPP.
02:12 So I think he just,
02:14 he considers everyone based on their ability,
02:18 their capacity, capability,
02:20 rather than their gender."
02:23 With just days to go before the election,
02:27 all three candidates are still canvassing for every vote.
02:31 Taiwan already has one of the highest rates of female participation in politics in Asia.
02:35 Over 40% of lawmakers are women,
02:38 and this year there are more female candidates than ever before.
02:40 It's a chance for the major parties to try some fresh blood in politics,
02:44 but it'll be up to the voters to decide whether it's time for change.
02:47 John Su, Scott Huang, Peter Zhuang and Ed Moon in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.
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