Roundtable with Dr. Shan-Jan Sarah Liu: Taiwanese Women’s Experiences in Taiwan’s Military

June 5, 2026: On June 4th, the Stockholm Taiwan Center had the pleasure of hosting a roundtable discussion with Dr. Shan-Jan Sarah Liu. The roundtable discussion was moderated by Yi-Chieh Chen. Dr. Shan-Jan Sarah Liu is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Gender and Politics at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. The discussion explored Dr. Liu’s findings from her research on Taiwanese women’s experiences in the military and was joined by ISDP research staff and experts from Stockholm’s academic community.

The main arguments emphasized by Dr. Liu were: (1) increased female representation in Taiwan’s military has not automatically translated into substantive institutional change; (2) the military culture remains deeply patriarchal and hypermasculine, limiting women’s career advancement and often confining them to administrative roles; (3) the persistence of skepticism surrounding women’s professional achievements, including among women themselves; (4) the lack of adequate infrastructure to support the increased presence of women in the military.

These points generated an insightful exchange, with reflections on how the situation could be improved, the relationship between women’s integration in the military and Taiwan’s broader geopolitical context, and possible similarities with the experiences of women in the armed forces in Sweden.