The overall percentage of women in high-ranking business and government positions has reached a record high, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor.
Ministry statistics indicate increases in female participation across a range of positions since 2005, although percentages for higher-ranking positions lag behind those for low-level jobs.
The data showed that there were about 98,000 female elected representatives, supervisors and managers last year, comprising 25.3 percent of the nation’s total, up from 16.3 percent in 2005.
The ministry also found that the percentage of female professionals — a category that includes positions such as engineers, doctors, lawyers and analysts — has remained flat over the past decade at slightly more than 50 percent, while the percentage of female technical personnel showed modest gains, rising from 41 percent in 2005 to 49 percent last year.
Ministry data also showed substantial increases in the representation of women at different levels of the government, with more than half of mid-level officials now female, up from 42.5 percent in 2005.
The percentage of female senior officials increased from 18.8 percent in 2005 to 30.6 percent last year, while among appointed officials the percentage of women increased from 12 percent in 2005 to 19.7 percent last year. The percentage of women heading government agencies and departments — from borough wardens to city mayors — increased from 6.7 percent to 15.8 percent over the same period.
“These figures reflect the greater educational opportunities for women now as the ‘glass ceiling’ crumbles,” Ministry of Labor Department of Statistics Director-General Lo Yi-ling (羅怡玲) said.
“The difference among [elected representatives, supervisors and managers] is quite large, because regulation has helped us achieve an extremely high percentage of women among elected representatives. This pulls up the average even though the percentage of women in other positions is quite low,” Awakening Foundation secretary-general Chyn Yu-rong (覃玉蓉) 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