Can a person who “wears a skirt” command the armed forces and lead the nation? That blunt question was posed by a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politician in 2008, as then-vice-president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) signaled her intention to seek the DPP’s presidential nomination. The politician was roundly criticized by the public for his male chauvinism, because, to many people, fitness to be the national leader should not be judged solely by gender; subsequently he apologized to Lu for his anachronistic stance. When presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who stepped down temporarily as chairperson of the DPP, announced her bid for the DPP presidential nomination in a speech on March 11, the same politician was present on the occasion to offer his blessing.
Tsai has a highly distinguished career. In many ways, she, like Lu, personifies a new breed of women in Taiwan who have excelled in politics, government service, business, medicine, science and technology. Indeed, the impressive achievements of Taiwan’s women are widely admired in the international community. When measured by the “gender development index” and “gender empowerment measure,” indicators used by the UN Development Program to analyze and compare gender development — access to education — and gender empowerment — participation in the job market, elections to parliament and representative offices — among nations, Taiwan’s women rank very high — No. 4 worldwide and No. 1 in Asia.
From Feb. 23 to March 4 this year, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held its 55th session in New York City, and Taiwan was prominently represented, as more than 20 equal rights advocates, myself included, from non-governmental organizations and universities took part in many international women’s forums, which were convened concurrently. The CSW is the primary global policymaking body devoted to examining the state of progress for women.
In conjunction with CSW55, the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW International) also held its annual Leader’s Summit on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21. Established in 1930, BPW International is an influential international network of business and professional women focused on developing the business and professional potential for women and its affiliates in 96 countries, including Taiwan, advocating and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women in education, politics and the -economy at the grassroot level. At the New York Leaders’ Summit, 40 leaders of BPW affiliates from 19 countries and professional groups were present, and I attended the meeting as Lu’s proxy, the leader of BPW Taiwan.
In addition to reviewing progress since the previous international congress and preparation for the forthcoming international congress in Helsinki in June, the Leaders’ Summit saw intense discussion on the campaign for “equal pay,” efforts to coordinate activities to raise awareness about how to solve wage inequality and close the pay gap, and on the ways and means of implementing the theme of CSW55 — “access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work.”
In the BPW International and CSW55 forums, there was a clear message to the conference participants from all over the world that “the door is open,” that education and training are available to accelerate the progress. However, for this to happen, political will, financial resources and action are indispensable. In this regard, several participants from Taiwan made valuable contributions as they shared their experiences in overcoming the barriers and challenges they have encountered in their professions. True, the fight for overall gender equality in Taiwan goes on, and the demand by an equal rights advocate for “increasing the number of women” in government office (“Increasing the number of women in office,” March 23, page 8) continues. It is also true that women in Taiwan have done remarkably well compared with other countries and have much to share with women who are struggling to improve their life. In a panel entitled “Persuade Members to Pay More Attention to International Efforts” that I chaired, much discussion centered on how BPW affiliates from different countries could learn from and help each other and how joint international efforts could make a difference.
I strongly believe that women from all walks of life in Taiwan have many “success stories” to share with their counterparts abroad. This would be an excellent form of people-to-people diplomacy, projecting Taiwan’s soft power and smart power.
Shirley Chang is associate professor emeritus and department chairwoman of library and information science, Lock Have University of Pennsylvania, and convener of international relations and public affairs for BPW Taiwan.
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