Negotiating for change: women’s movements and education reform in Taiwan

The dramatic changes during the past 20 years in Taiwan offer a good example of how gender policy in education is facilitated by a combination of interrelated economic, political and social forces. Taiwan’s policy on gender education emerged from the interaction of state, education, academic and non‐academic feminist positions in reforms. This paper demonstrates – first, the importance of the socio‐political contexts in which reform was proposed, and second, the actions of feminists in making best use of the opportunities thrown up by a confluence of social factors. The social, economic and political transformations of the 1980s saw the rise of a ‘new’ state both supposedly and in reality more responsive to the needs of non‐profit organisations. In testing out relationships of partnership with the state, feminist activists saw the deregulation of education as an opportunity to get women’s issues on the agenda. These reforms were catalysed by a series of social events bringing together supporters in a mood of celebration, protest or mourning specifically in response to particular events. The struggles, contentions, and negotiations that underlay the eventual approval of gender reform in education are illustrated.     

Immigrant girls as caregivers to younger siblings: a transnational feminist analysis

This article employs a transnational feminist lens to examine the experiences of racialised immigrant girls who provide care for their younger siblings. The article draws on findings from a participatory action research study in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to examine the role that immigrant girls’ caregiving practices play in transnational families’ social, economic, and cultural survival. It argues that greater attention should be given to the diverse and complex contexts, consequences, costs, and contributions of immigrant girls’ caregiving labour.     

Several complex variables are better than just one

In this popular expository article, we discuss some important ways in which complex analysis in more than one variable is different from complex analysis in one variable. Analytic continuation in several variables is contrasted with that in one variable, and the notion of psuedoconvexity is defined. Hartogs phenomenon and the Levi problem are also discussed in an informal way.