Although Taiwan's women are receiving more and more recognition of their abilities in many areas, there are still many fields where the proportion of men and women is unbalanced and women are in the minority. In recent years, we in the women's movement have realized that one big issue is the dearth of women in leadership positions, especially in political life.
In response to complaints, although nobody comes right out and says that women are bad leaders, we are often told that it takes time to build up enough talent, that we should be patient and that the day for female leadership will come "soon."
I feel this attitude is misguided, because there are so many talented women who are already well qualified for the highest levels of leadership. Therefore, on this Women's Day, I want to express my wish that when the Womens' Day comes around next year, Taiwan will have set a world first by installing an all-female Cabinet to lead us into a new era.
I sincerely call on all the presidential candidates to consider seriously the idea of forming an all-female Executive Yuan.
This idea is not totally fanciful. In fact, I have drawn up a list of my favorite candidates for all the major ministries and councils of the Executive Yuan. The minor agencies (some of which should be abolished anyway, such as the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission) could be allocated as positions for token men -- after all, these are the positions they usually leave for token women nowadays!
Here is my wish list:
Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Annette Lu (
Minister of the Interior:
Chen Chu (陳菊), director, Kaohsiung City Bureau of Social Affairs; former
director of Taipei City Bureau of Social Affairs
Minister of Economic Affairs:
Shirley Kuo (
Minister of Finance:
Vivian W. Yen (
Minister of National Defense:
Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), three-term legislator, member of the legislature's defense committee
Minister of Justice:
Lin Chu-chi (林菊枝), senior law professor
Minister of Education:
Wong Chin-chu (
Minister of Transportation and Communications:
Nita Ing (
Minister of Culture (upgraded from chairperson, Council for Cultural Affairs):
Chu Hui-liang (朱惠良), two-term legislator, member of the education committee
Director-General, Department of Health:
Chang Wen-ying (
Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency:
Liu Shih-fang (
commissioner of Taichung County; former director of the Taipei City Bureau of Environmental Protection
Chairwoman, Mainland Affairs Council:
Fan Hsun-lu (范巽綠), two-term
legislator
Chairwoman, Council for Economic Planning and Development:
Lee Jih-chu (
Chairwoman, Council on Agriculture:
Chen Lai-hong (
Chairwoman, Council of Labor Affairs:
Huang Chao-hsun (
Chairwoman, Council of Aboriginal Affairs:
Chang Jen-hsiang (章仁香), two-term legislator, representing Plains Aborigines
Chairwoman, Research, Development and Evaluation Commission:
Chang Fu-mei (
Director, Government Information Office:
Diane Ying (
And the premier? Since the political environment today is so complex and the government might not be able to count on majority support in the Legislative Yuan, I would suggest Chang Po-ya (
If most people feel that we need a person like Lee Yuan-tseh
There will inevitably be a chorus of complaints about the composition of this list: "Why have you included X but left out Y?", "You have concentrated only on your own side of the political spectrum," etc.
I freely admit all of these errors. But these complaints only prove the fact that there are certainly more than enough excellent women available to lead our country.
In fact, among such an abundance, choosing such a small number among them is a painful and difficult task.
In any case, I think few objective observers could honestly say that they think this Cabinet would do any worse than the current one, and thus the point is made: the women of Taiwan are ready for government, today!
Chia-ching Hsu is the secretary-general of the League of Taiwan Women.
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