Taiwan has forged a reputation as Asia’s most progressive democracy, and it boasts a higher proportion of women in parliament than anywhere else in the region — yet misogynistic insults have littered its presidential race.

The campaign for the Jan. 11 polls has exposed an undercurrent where female politicians face a gauntlet of personal abuse and jibes that their male counterparts rarely suffer.

In the general election, 220 women MPs were elected, pushing women’s representation in parliament up  from 32 per cent to 34 per cent - placing the UK 36th in the word between Belarus and Monaco.

The Liberia Women Leaders Network (LWLN), the local chapter of the African Women Leaders Network (ALWN), was officially launched on Wednesday, December 18 in Monrovia.

The launch, which took place at the Ministerial Complex in Congo Town, brought together women leaders from different spheres of society including government, political parties, traditional and the business community.

A record number of women presented themselves for office ahead of the UK’s 2019 election. A total of 37% of candidates were female – an improvement of eight percentage points over the number of women standing in 2017 (29%) and 11 percentage points compared to 2015 (26%). This despite how challenging it can be to organise a campaign for a snap election.

Young women in politics are still looked down upon as being inexperienced, while their ability to perform roles is often questioned, a forum was told on Wednesday.

Speaking at a discussion organised by the Thai Journalists Association, deputy government spokeswoman, Rachada Dhnadirek said parliament has appointed a working team to work on the issue of promoting gender equality.