[2] The Bureau of Social Education in the Japanese colonial government proposed policies to curb abuse and trafficking of adopted daughters, specifically to strengthen protection of such children and launch campaigns to raise awareness of such issues.
During the 1920s, the colonial government was relatively tolerant of political dissent, allowing the first autonomous women’s movement in Taiwanese history to flourish.
[4] In 1921, fearing Japanese assimilation, the Taiwanese Cultural Association, a Taiwan petition movement demanding the formation of a local parliament, was founded.
According to Doris Chang, the goal of the movements was to achieve the emancipation of Taiwanese women from colonial domination, patriarchal oppression, and capital exploitation.
[9] Thus, from the 1920s to 1931, enhancement of gender equality and women’s status was promoted on Taiwan’s social and political grounds, including revisions to certain concepts in Confucianism.
Such movements were helped by the Taiwan Cultural Association which in fact led to a military strategy for achieving independence from the Japanese empire in 1928.
[12] Apart from promoting women workers’ rights and feminist movements in Taiwan, they enhanced in exchange of ideas and knowledge, also providing emotional supports among members between several association groups.
[16] Apart from supporting the troops and their families, members of the Association have also functioned as an institution for the colonial government to reinforce Taiwanese women’s identification with the Japanese nation.
[21] The following decades of hard authoritarian rule known as the “White Terror” were not conductive to the development of an autonomous women’s movement.
While Government associated woman’s organizations worked to ensure female education on one hand, they reinforced traditional Confucian gender roles on the other.
[26] Although martial law was still active, the 1970s saw a weakening of authoritarian control in Taiwan, which gave rise to political opposition and various social movements.
[27] Annette Lu is considered the founder of feminist thinking in modern Taiwan and established the first formal women's-rights movement in 1972.
Lu’s articles vehemently criticized the dehumanization of the murdered wife and argued for fair competition between men and women for college spots.
[35] In 1976, she founded the Pioneer Press in Taibei, which published fifteen books by prominent feminist thinkers in just one year, before having to close due to backlash in 1977.
[36] After delivering a twenty-minute keynote address during the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979, Lu was arrested, court-martialled and sentenced to twelve years in prison.
It remained the only non-government affiliated group to challenge existing hierarchy and stand in for gender equality until the lifting of martial law in 1987.
[46] They continued to face difficulties as women started to engage in male-dominated major affairs i.e. issues regarding politics or finance set in a public space.
This mutual support was especially important in dividing the responsibility for child upbringing, freeing up time to go to work, do voluntary service and participate in a public social life.
[50] In late 1990s, the feminist groups in Taiwan became more diverse and were reaching into more social issues like the division of household labour and the decriminalization of adultery.
After Ma Ying-jeou was elected mayor, he brought the case forward again, and finally won a two-year grace period for the abolition of prostitution.
[60] After the 1970s, Taiwan’s economy grew, and the female labor force participation rate gradually increased, but the distribution of economic achievements was uneven.
[61][62] When women entered the workplace, they encountered gender discrimination in the process of recruitment, promotion, and retirement, and housework is also taken for granted.
[54][63] In 1987, 57 female waiters at the National Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei entrusted lawyers to ask for the abolition of the requirement that they must leave their jobs at the age of 30 or if they were pregnant.
But except for the 7th article of the constitution, which stipulates that "The people of the Republic of China, regardless of gender, are equal in law" , they found no other relevant provisions based on which they could sue the Memorial Hall.