Female? Moving to/Living in Taiwan?

Advice, thoughts and resources for women planning to move to Taiwan or those who have just arrived and are scrambling to find resources. I find that these resources can be quite scant on the expat networks here, which are male dominated simply because there are more male expats here than female. We need info somehow, though, and this is the best way I could think to provide it.

This isn't a perfectly exhaustive list: check my hashtags for "womens_issues", "feminism", "expat_women" and other related tags for even more.

Updated 05/2019: New English-speaking OB-GYN in Taipei


Updated 05/2019: Recommended gym in Taipei

Updated 12/2018: good haircuts for expat women in Taipei

Large size shoes for women in Taiwan (not just Taipei)

Clothes for Western women in Taipei (the included link is also great)

What to Pack Post I and Post II

Why are there so few expat women in Asia?

Dating in Taiwan

Navigating Friendship in Taiwan

Abortion in Taiwan

Western Women and Weight in Taiwan

Health Care in Taiwan (with a section discussing women's health)

Getting clothing tailored in Taiwan

Know your labor rights, especially if you're planning to have children here

Yes, Taiwanese men used to trick foreign wives into divorce - fortunately that's no longer possible

Women's safety in Taiwan (it's actually pretty safe, but bad things do happen)

Women's safety in Taiwan II (my work in TaiwanScene, reposted to CommonWealth - this article turned out to be very popular)

Sexism in English teaching in Taiwan - it seems like nobody cares

I don't think expat men, in general, are particularly strong allies of expat women - truly I don't

...and I'm not a huge fan of their pontificating on Asian women's clothing either


Women in the Tech Sector Posts I and II

Women in Finance

Issues Regarding Rape (and more here)

The Low Marriage Rate in Taiwan, Posts I, II and III

The Low Birthrate in Taiwan

Sexual assault and politics in Taiwan (see my related piece in Ketagalan Media here)

Centred on Taipei March 2018: The Women's Issue (my piece is called "Newton's Cradle")

A Taiwan dating experience (a piece by me for TaiwanScene)

Sexual assault in Taiwan: From The Island of Women to #MeToo (more of my work for TaiwanScene), and what might happen if you come forward without pressing charges


Foreign domestic labor in Taiwan and sexual abuse

Island of Women

Book review: Women's Movements in Twentieth-Century Taiwan, and how Annette Lu has perhaps been done wrong

Firewalking for Beginners: women and religious festivals in Taiwan

It's hard as an American woman to vote for 'friends of Taiwan' in the US

Foreign male journalists in Asia can be more of a horrorshow than you realize

Women and the Taiwan Miracle

Gender discrimination laws and job ads in Taiwan vs. China

A redux of the ongoing discussion on sex slaves in Taiwanese history (called "comfort women", mostly to make sure men don't feel uncomfortable talking about it)

Western men: do better when you discuss women

The "Ideal Mother" awards and Taiwanese society

Marriage brokerage in Taiwan (contains a link - I have not written extensively about this)

Women and sexuality in Taiwan