TAIPEI (AFP) ― Taiwan’s opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen is seeking to become the island’s first female president with a blend of understated charisma, low-key eloquence and quiet strength.

In a traditionally male-dominated society, the 55-year-old leader of the Democratic Progressive Party has sought to turn her gender into an advantage in the campaign for this Saturday’s election.

“Our society will be more harmonious and our country will be more united with a woman in charge,” she told supporters at a recent rally.

Tsai has promised to turn a new page with a fresh image for the DPP, shedding a history of scandal as it seeks to reach beyond its traditional blue-collar support base and embrace urban middle-class voters.

She is in a tight race with President Ma Ying-jeou who has presided over a warming of ties with China which observers say could be wound back if the independence-minded opposition is victorious.

Party politics in Taiwan has traditionally been defined by China policy, but voters have becoming increasingly disinterested and this campaign has largely been fought on economic policies.

Tsai joined the party in 2004 and took charge just four years later at its lowest moment when, dogged by a string of corruption cases, it suffered a crushing defeat in the 2008 elections that ushered Ma into power.

The untested and scholarly law professor represents a sharp contrast to traditional DPP politicians who have a reputation for aggression and street smarts, and she initially faced doubts even from within her party.

However, she managed to lead the DPP back on track and went on to win several regional elections, suggesting it would be a mistake to misinterpret her mild manner, observers said.

“Tsai is a tough lady but she knows how to make concessions when needs be. She has this kind of quiet strength and she is a strong character,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Taiwan expert at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Despite Taiwan’s conservatism, women have long constituted a high-profile and vocal segment in parliament and the island had a female vice-president in 2000-2008, preparing the ground for Tsai’s bid for power.

Voter surveys indicate Taiwan is ready for a woman in charge, with a recent TVBS cable news channel poll showing that 47 percent found her reliable against 28 who did not, although her general support trails slightly behind Ma.

Born into a wealthy family from southern Pingtung county, Tsai studied law at the National Taiwan University before gaining a master’s degree from Cornell University and a doctorate from the London School of Economics.

She returned to Taiwan to teach law in 1984 and began advising the government in international trade and China policies in the 1990s under then president Lee Teng-hui.

Tsai took on her first big government post in 2000, becoming head of the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan’s top China policy-making body, during the first four-year term of then president Chen Shui-bian.

Taiwan and China opened limited transportation links in 2001, which Tsai said helped lay the foundation for normal exchanges between the two sides which split in 1949 after a civil war.

She served as a non-constituency lawmaker for the DPP from 2005 to 2006 before she was appointed vice premier and later a presidential adviser until Chen’s second term ended in May 2008.

In 2010, she ran for the mayor of New Taipei City, the island’s most populous city and a stronghold of Ma’s ruling Kuomintang party, but lost narrowly.

For her presidential campaign, Tsai has endeavoured to portray the DPP as a party for the people and shake off its corruption-tarnished image by encouraging small donations rather than soliciting corporate pledges.

Even if she does not win on Saturday, Tsai is confident she will already have made history.

“Taiwan has its first female candidate in the 2012 election and I am certain that I will not be the last one. I believe that there will be many, many more females standing here afterwards,” she said recently.

“I know that through this election, every little girl can confidently write down: my goal is to become Taiwan’s president.”