作者 ｜
A(A)
關鍵字 ｜
女性主義法學、性別平等、性別勞動區隔、女性軍人、男子
Title ｜
The Politics of Gender Equality in the Military: A Comparative Legal and Cultural Analysis
Author ｜
A(A)
Abstract ｜
This research employs multiple standpoints including comparative
law, feminist jurisprudence and gender study, and conducts interviews with
women soldiers to navigate and locate urgent issues on gender and the
military in Taiwan. In this article, I conduct a comparative law and public
policy analysis in three different jurisdictions including the US, Germany
and Taiwan. This project suggests, on the one hand, a methodological
inquiry into the possibility of a global feminism to understand and to
contextualize each country’s unique set of issues; on the other hand,
addresses gender equality within cultural and legal discourse concerning
women soldiers.
As prevalent today, women in the military in Taiwan were ed
separately from men using a different set of criteria, and women are mostly
limited to administrative work along the gender divide. The military school
system currently admits only a certain quota of female students. However,
this practice has been challenged both by individual women who want to
cross the gender divide, and by feminists who advocate for gender equality
as a national agenda. What could then be the key factors to integrate female
soldiers successfully and ensure they have equal opportunities to engage
in all levels and gain no less satisfaction? Firstly, we need to challenge the female quota on gaining entrance to military schools, the sex-based
treatment in military education and on job assignments, and also tackle
the dilemma of work and family. The pervasiveness of gender divide
in all aspects of social life hinders women’s efforts to achieve their full
potential in military. We must reveal the continuous, long-existing gender
discrimination against women in the public sphere since the private lives
of men and women are highly integrated. Thus, gender discrimination
against women is most difficult to identify, sometimes too subtle to tell. To
launch a legal challenge can be one of the ways to negotiate and gain more
power to fight against gender discrimination, at the very least, to facilitate
a change in culture and education so as to alter people’s behavior and to
create a public platform for dialogues and debates.
Keywords ｜
feminist jurisprudence, sex/gender equality, gender divisions of labor, women soldiers, masculinity