Was Taiwan's Electoral Reform Good for Women? SNTV, MMM, Gender Quotas, and Female Representation

Relative to other countries in the world, Taiwan has consistently elected large numbers of women to political office. This paper argues that women have done well in Taiwan because of the reserved female seat system in SNTV elections and that the 2005 reform from SNTV to MMM did not produce further gains in gender equality. SNTV with reserved seats produces incentives for parties to cultivate large numbers of powerful women in order to ensure that other parties are not able to win cheap or free seats. Empirically, the evidence shows that women win significantly more votes and seats in districts with reserved seats than in those without them. Moreover, winning an SNTV election requires candidates to amass power resources, and the women who survive this arduous test have power that can be used for other political goals. Women elected on party lists do not necessarily accumulate as much power. The new MMM system has arguably not produced more female legislators than the old SNTV system would have, and it has reduced the aggregate power that women in the legislature can wield.