international journal of taiwan studies 1 (2018) 90-114 brill.com/ijts © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/24688800-00101006 * The author’s research interests include cross-cultural gender/sexuality/feminist studies, Taiwan’s gender mainstreaming and multicultural policies, Taiwanese women’s political leadership and national identities. Studies of Taiwan’s Feminist Discourses and Women’s Movements Doris T. Chang Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, Wichita State University, Wichita, ks, us a doris.chang@wichita.edu Abstract In the twentieth century, Taiwanese feminists have selectively appropriated various strands of Western feminism to improve women’s status and meet women’s needs. In this article, several scholarly works pertaining to the analysis of various strands of Taiwanese feminism, and the historical development of women’s movements pub- lished in the 1990s, as well as after, will be reviewed and discussed. The lifting of martial law in 1987 created the political climate that enabled Taiwanese feminists to lift their self-censorship and contribute to the diversification of feminist discourses and ngos in Taiwanese civil society. The mid-1990s was another watershed in the transformation of Taiwanese feminist discourses and women’s movement strategies. Keywords Taiwanese feminism – women’s movements – state of the field Introduction Studies of Taiwanese feminist discourses and women’s movements have blossomed since the 1990s. This article reviews several studies on Taiwanese women’s movements and feminist discourses, and presents them in two main