The Rise of Women: The Untold History of Mothers Entering Politics
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This article is part of the 16th issue of LEAP — Voices of Youth e-letter. Subscribe now.
Since Taiwan lifted martial law in 1987, the number of women participating in politics has been increasing year by year with feminist groups’ promotion [1]. The first female president in Taiwan was elected in 2016. In 2018, over one-third of city or township mayors were women. In 2020, the rate of female legislators was over 40%, which is a breakthrough and stands the highest rate in Asia.
Despite the astonishing improvement, however, the social structure is prejudicial to women’s political situation, especially for mothers with parental responsibility. Those mothers who wish to participate, prepare to participate, or currently participate in politics are in predicaments hard to be understood, yet now, they attempt to change the status quo.
Is a Full-Time Mother a Profession? — Mothers in the Congress
In the past, due to family needs and income disparities, women in Taiwan often voluntarily or were forced to sacrifice their career development and become a full-time mother. In the modern society where mainly consist of double-income families, however, women who choose to be a full-time mother is likely seen as a failure in labor markets. “Many people think that a mother is a role that has no relation with any profession,” said Wang Wan-Yu, a legislator elected in 2020.
Wang is also a mother of four. She disclosed that she has faced many doubts since running for election. “Many people said I am just a mother. What would I know? How could I be competent for this job?”
This stereotype affects her work in the legislature. “Whenever a children-related incident occurs, people think I should do something for it,” Wang expressed that she cares about various issues, but some people insist that she needs to focus on “what a mother should do,” and “anything else is not my field of expertise and I should not get involved.”
Wang stated that society is filled with social stigmas against full-time mothers. “Many full-time mothers voluntarily give up their jobs because they want to concentrate on accompanying and educating their children.”
Wang loves to get along with her children. Even after she entered the Legislative Yuan, she remains proactive in being a part of her children’s development. “Accompanying children requires active consciousness,” she said. Even now, Wang takes her children to school and even brings them to her office.
“We move step by step, bringing children to office and slowly expanding the boundaries.”
“I saw foreign politicians carrying their children piggyback to the statehouse. That encouraged me to bring my children to work to see if it affects my work,” Wang said. Though her children have occasional outbursts, overall Wang does not think they affect her work. She even attends a meeting with her children. “More often than not, we are just not used to it. It actually doesn’t affect the meetings,” she said.
Occasionally, when she is busy at work, Wang still needs her family or friends to babysit her children. Sometimes, her husband and she need to take turns working overtime. She said that “parents truly need a group to support babysitting. For example, I have a group of friends who can take turns babysitting each other’s children.”
Today, Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan has one daycare center, which prioritizes taking in 0–2-year-old infants of legislators and related staff. Wang thinks family-friendly policies in Taiwan’s political workplace are insufficient, but she also considers reforming takes time. “We move step by step, bringing children to office and slowly expanding the boundaries,” said Wang.
Who Takes Care of the Family When Mothers Step Out of Home for Elections?
Before entering the political realm, the identity of a mother already set a huge obstacle for women running for election.
“When our children say that they want to be mayor or president in the future, we are all supportive. However, when we become mothers, our family no longer supports us to do what we want to do.”
In the election for regional representatives in 2018, a total of 20 mothers in Taiwan decided to run for election as independents. After the election, they formed the Taiwan Obasan Political Equality Party (TOPEP) [2], becoming the first party to consist of over 90% of members who are mothers.
“This world already has too many fathers in politics,” said Ho Yu-Jung, who ran for the Taichung City Council and is now the Secretary-General of the TOPEP. She addressed that after a woman becomes a mother, it seems that no one expects her to participate in politics.
“When our children say that they want to be mayor or president in the future, we are all supportive. However, when we become mothers, our family no longer supports us to do what we want to do,” recalled Ho. When these mothers who call themselves “obasan” joined the election, almost all of them faced negative comments from their families, such as “Are you crazy?” “Stop daydreaming!” or “Who is going to take care of the family?”
“The strange thing is that when a father says he wants to run for election, no one asks him ‘Who is going to take care of the children?’ People only ask him, ‘Does your wife support you?’” said Ho.
Given that housework is an unpaid job, full-time mothers are economically dependent on their family and husband. This makes it more difficult for them to ask for money to run for election. “Facing that problem, we realized that it was a predicament shared by all women in Taiwan,” said Ms. Ho.
Therefore, these obasans proactively communicate with their families, hoping that their running for election could be an act of social advocacy and stir up the male-centered political system. “Perhaps deep down we are all rebellious mothers!” said Ho.
As the number of women participating in politics increases, it is hoped that these mothers can stop being labeled as non-professional and freely participate in politics without the need for “rebellion.”
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Note 1: Starting in the 1990s, Taiwan has implemented a system of “reserved seats for women” in its representative institutions. Currently, in the legislative election, the number of female candidates being elected in the party-list proportional representation system may not be lower than half. In regional representative elections, at least one in every four people being elected must be female.
Note 2: “Obasan”, originally a Japanese term, means “elderly women” as spoken in the Hokkien dialect in Taiwan. Sometimes the term is used to describe someone who likes to drive a bargain or tacky.
LEAP — Voices of Youth is a monthly e-letter with a focus on the progress for gender equality and women’s status in Taiwan, including the LGBTQ+ community and gender issues in schools. Click here to subscribe.
Also in This Issue:
Grassroots Politics: How Local Women Exercise Their Political Power and Promote Reforms
Starting from a playgroup, a number of mothers are challenging patriarchal politics and speaking up for women and children’s rights.
Author & Photographer: Lin Si-hou
Freelance journalist exploring gender and public issues.
