Women’s rights and welfare under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has significant room for improvement, opposition lawmakers said on International Women’s Day yesterday.
“The misery index of Taiwanese women has skyrocketed in the past few years as the current administration has not brought hope on almost every issue they care about,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said.
Citing statistics compiled by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), Pan said Taiwanese women have to work 65 days more than men on average every year, but their average salary was 17.6 percent lower.
Photo: CNA
Women’s labor force participation rate last year was 49 percent, compared with men’s 72 percent, he said, adding that between 2,000 and 3,000 women become unemployed after marriage or have children every year.
For those who are employed, they experience harassment from men, with 375 of the 386 reported cases of sexual harassment being filed by women, Pan said, adding that it did not include those who did not file harassment suits.
Ma has failed to improve women’s well-being as president as well as keeping his campaign pledge of allocating at least a quarter of Cabinet positions to females, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) said she would propose a bill to protect women’s right to participate in politics by increasing the number of female conveners in the Legislative Yuan’s subcommittees.
Her proposal is to increase the number of subcommittee conveners from two to three and any sex should not be less than one-third of the total number of conveners, which means that at least one female lawmaker would be a convener in every subcommittee.
Ma, meanwhile, touted the nation’s achievements in pushing for gender equality in various fields and promised to continue the work to promote women’s rights.
The president, speaking at an International Women’s Day event organized by the Ministry of the Interior, detailed the government’s continuous efforts in promoting women’s rights, including increasing the number of legislative seats for women and creating job opportunities for them, adding the government would work harder to reduce domestic violence and sexual harassment.
Statistics from the ministry showed that the female labor force participation rate reached 50 percent — contrary to the DGBAS’ figure that Peng cited — while the number of female legislators accounted for more than one-third of all seats.
Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) added the government would work to raise the number of female members in committees at government agencies and state-run corporations to account for at least one-third of all members.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS