ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how and to what extent the idea of Western feminism can be transcribed in Taiwan. It examines Taiwanese women’s feminist experience as reflected in their marriage and family. The chapter postulates that the sociocultural principle of "positionality" confines Chinese women to relationally defined domestic roles and allows them to select one role in preference to another and to maneuver between domestic and public arenas in searching for interests and power. It shows that in the modernizing Taiwanese society, where many women’s problems have emerged as important social issues, a fundamental opposition between women and men is lacking. The chapter argues that Taiwanese women’s perceptions of gender politics lack an oppositional dichotomy between the two sexes, in contrast to the perception of Western feminist thoughts. "Positionality" as a sociocultural principle defining human relationships in Chinese society shapes women’s experiences in their search for autonomy and gender equality.
