This book aims at exploring the role of women in Taiwan, which has gone through various phases of transformation to become a democratic society and an economic power. But it is also written mostly by Western academics and their views may not totally reflect the realities of daily life in Taiwan. Taiwanese have inherited the long and complex patterns of definitions of genders and relationships that were developed in China. In the mainland, the people and living conditions were reshaped by revolutionary Marxists who proclaimed equality between men and woman. In Taiwan, democracy and prosperity as a result from the economic miracle has called gender equality.

"Taiwan is a place where one can observe the transformation of attitudes and behaviors in an environment of rapid socio-economic and political change," the authors of this book say as they start the long debate on the role of women in Taiwan's changing society. They concentrate on one very important aspect of Taiwan's development: the place of women in the so-called "Taiwan miracle." Feminism that hit Western countries in the 1960s soon arrived in Taiwan as the island nation struggled to maintain its place in the world. But if feminism was openly embraced in the west, Asian women were still quite hesitant to admit it. Author Hwei-syin Lu says about the story of a young woman in Taiwan who put it this way: "If a westerner asks me whether I'm a feminist, my answer will be yes. But if a Chinese asks me the same question, I'll say no. Western people make a clear distinction between feminists and non-feminists while a Chinese woman will hesitate to label herself as a feminist lest her family, marriage, and human relationships break." Lu says such a viewpoint existed in the 1980s when she studied women in Taiwan. In the past, some women believed that feminism meant anti-men and anti-family and they preferred to remain in the area of domestic roles. But Taiwanese society has changed as it gained world prominence, backed by fast-paced scientific and technological development, particularly in the field of information technology. The democratic process that allows the people to elect directly their leaders has given a strong voice to many groups, among them women. Murray A. Rubinstein says that the pioneer of feminism in Taiwan is Lu Hsiu-lien, the current vice president in the DPP government, who helped advance the cause of women in Taiwan in politics as well as in various areas, including education.

Rubinstein devotes a long chapter on the life of Lu Hsiu-lien, saying that the feminist movement in Taiwan was a product of Lu after she returned to Taiwan in 1971 from a graduate school in the United States. Lu had wanted to pursue a PhD but was persuaded by her mother to drop that ambition because a PhD would be to "push [one's] husband down." It was then that Lu was determined to fight for gender equality. She built the feminism movement through a strategy that included lectures at well known universities in Taiwan and overseas. Rubinstein calls Lu an "extraordinary woman" who has become an important model for women on Taiwan.

For Catherine S.P. Farris, women's liberation has taken hold in both Taiwan and China because of the economic and political development in the two countries. Farris says the concept is much discussed because of the modernization in the two societies. In Taiwan, capitalism and democracy is helping the feminism movement and is supported by government leaders. In the 1960s, Taiwan's workforce included 25 percent of women over the age of 15. But by the early 1990s, 45 percent of workers were women and that percentage has remained stable until now. Women in Taiwan are better educated and are keeping their jobs while having families and children. Farris says feminism has entered a fourth decade in Taiwan and women's roles and status have clearly been transformed. But Farris warns that certain patriarchal values have remained in many Asian societies where feminism has developed. Modernization in Taiwan has resulted in urbanization, smaller families, and an end of the domination by the older generation over the younger generation.

"Women in Taiwan have been more successful in a legal sense in realizing equality with men in the family (e.g. concerning inheritance and child custody) although these legal victories have not always been realized in practice," says Farris. She says Taiwanese women may still feel subordinated within the family, but they do not regard the family as a source of oppression from which they need to be liberated.