Partial gender quotas: The disparity in women's representation in Taiwan's legislature and cabinet

This study addresses the disparity between women's representation in Taiwan's presidential cabinet and its legislature. Under Taiwan's first female president, the legislative elections of 2020 resulted in a legislature of over 40 % female, while the proportion of female cabinet ministers remained consistently low. The paper uses document and text analysis to propose a conceptual framework of ‘partial gender quotas’ to explore this disparity, offering three possible explanations. First, the institutional design of gender quotas for female legislators promotes gender equality in parliamentary representation, while the cabinet is more directly shaped by party politics with less civil oversight. Second, the Executive Yuan's Gender Equality Committee has not realised feminist scholars' expectations to generate a more significant impact on Taiwan's political landscape. Third, Taiwan's female political leadership has shown reluctance to frame themselves as role models for women and girls.