In an effort to create a friendlier environment for women in Taiwan, representatives from various women's groups yesterday urged legislators to keep gender issues in mind and push bills related to women's rights.
Organized by the Taiwan Women's Link, women's groups sat down with legislators from all parties yesterday in "Build a Women-Friendly Nation" forum to talk about public policies concerning women's rights.
"I hope the forum is a beginning of collaborate efforts by the government and the public to improve women's rights in Taiwan," said National Chengchi University law professor Chen Hui-shing (
During yesterday's forum, the National Union of Taiwan Women Association (NUTWA), the Garden of Hope, Taiwan Women's Link, the Awakening Foundation, the Taiwanese Feminist Scholars Association and other groups joined forces to push for further revisions of bills, including the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (
In addition, representatives from women's groups also urged legislators to pay attention to issues such as prostitution and nanny fees.
"Parents in Taiwan pay over NT$10,000 a month to hire a nanny. Add in tuition and other expenses, and it takes a considerable amount of money to raise a kid," said Liu Yu-hsiu (劉毓秀), chairwoman of the Peng Wan-ru Foundation.
Liu said that high nanny fees and tuitions have discouraged many women from getting pregnant. Some even shun getting married. As a result, more and more men in Taiwan are seeking brides overseas, and many social problems, including abuse of foreign spouses and illegal overseas marriage agencies, have followed.
"Therefore a policy to regulate nanny fees and provide parents with a birth allowance may raise the birth rate and prevent these problems from happening," she said.
Chinese Nationalist Party legislator Huang Chao-shun (
"I don't think any of the bills or policies will be passed or revised during this year's legislative sessions if you don't set up priorities for these issues," Huang said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Ing-wen (
"In addition, I think many male legislators do not care as much about these policies as female legislators do. The negligence by male legislators adds to the difficulties of getting all the policies taken care of," Tsai said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching