Yet success has not always come easy, and there have been many setbacks. Indeed, books on social movements published around the time of the lifting of martial law (which happened in 1987) devoted most of their attention to the consumer movement and environmentalism; the outlook was not considered good for a women's movement.
然而，翻開解嚴前後出版，討論台灣新興社會運動的書籍，當時的婦女運動在強勢的消費者運動、環保運動襯托下，前景並不被看好；事實上，回顧婦運歷史，也確曾有過曇花一現的失敗經驗。