Group founded to promote women's role within sports

A group aimed at promoting female participation in sports in Taiwan and enhancing women's rights in the traditionally male-dominated field was formally established yesterday.

The first chairwoman of the Taiwan Association of Women and Sport (TAWS), Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) of the Democratic Progressive Party, said that she hopes the organization will help to develop women's role within athletics.

The officials and celebrity athletes took part in the inauguration ceremony, including Chen Chuan-shou (陳全壽), the minister of the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports; Huang Ta-chou (黃大洲), chairman of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee; Etsuko Ogasawara, co-chairwoman of the International Working Group on Women and Sports; and Chi Cheng (紀政), who is considered Asia's top female track-and-field athlete of the 20th century.

Addressing the ceremony, Hsiao said that there was insufficient public space dedicated in Taiwan for women to play sports or engage in physical exercise, and she expressed the hope that the new organization would help to increase the number of female athletes in Taiwan and create more opportunities for women to take part in sports on equal terms with men.

Citing the Olympic Games as an example, Huang said that the number of local female athletes in international competitions on average accounts for 53 percent of Taiwan's competitors.

Despite this majority, female athletes do not enjoy the same proportion of attention and support, he said, suggesting that more effort be dedicated to improving the physical education and training environment for women.

One of TAWS' goals is to seek the right to host the Asia Conference on Women and Sport in 2007 as part of its efforts to lead regional training of women in sport.