Feminist geography in Taiwan and Hong Kong

Abstract

Feminist geography research in East Asia is weak, although Women's and Gender Studies as an interdisciplinary field in this region is strong. This is true of Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. In this article, we examine how studies on women started in Taiwan and Hong Kong and have become institutionalized in the last two and a half decades. In this period, courses and research proliferated in several disciplines as a result of gender equity policies stipulated by governments, as well as the increasing number of female staff in the faculties of humanities and social sciences. Several reasons account for slow progress in the development of feminist geography: the male-dominated structure of geography departments in both countries; an emphasis on the scientific as opposed to social scientific nature of geography; and a general lack of feminist consciousness among geographers who tend to study issues at a macro level. In addition, the small proportion of women teaching at the university level has also led to setbacks in the development of feminist geography. While there are a few courses that incorporate gender perspectives and lectures on feminist geography have been given as part of other geography modules, gender blindness continues to prevail in teaching and research in human geography. This article, however, sees two recent factors that may help to advance feminist geography in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Firstly, the number of female faculty members and graduate students has increased, thus providing momentum in the appreciation of gender geography. Secondly, Chinese-speaking countries in East Asia have played active roles in internationalizing the discipline, thus connecting themselves with feminist scholars abroad, and increasing opportunities to engage in collaborative work. The IGU Commission on Gender and Geography, which encompasses a diversity of world views, is one avenue for facilitating this trend in the near future.