Analysis: Amendments to Taiwan's Gender Equality Laws, One Year On

TaiwanPlus News

It's been one year since Taiwan amended its gender equality laws to crack down on sexual harassment. But how much difference have the amendments made? TaiwanPlus speaks to Darice Chang, a women’s rights activist based in Taipei.

Transcript

00:00It's been a year since Taiwan made changes to its gender equality laws.

00:05How do you view the results of those changes?

00:08Obviously, we're very pleased that the laws have been passed.

00:11These laws ensure that there are additional protections for victims.

00:16The penalties have been increased and also it shows that society as a whole and the state

00:22in particular prioritizes women and minorities' rights in terms of if things happen and they're

00:30able to report things.

00:31However, the legal reforms primarily address the formal mechanisms that are in place, so

00:38they don't really address the underlying societal issues that allowed these incidents to take

00:45place in the first place.

00:47However, this is not to say that there hasn't been any change whatsoever within civil society

00:51or on a societal front.

00:53So for example, we can see that there are more victims who are willing to come forth

00:58after the MeToo movement.

01:00In addition, there have been improvements within Taiwanese civil society to create environments

01:07that prioritize and have a better understanding of gender-based violence and power-based violence

01:14due to the MeToo movement that occurred last year.

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