The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has not only failed to live up to the legacy of Peng Wan-ju (彭婉如), but the government under the nation’s first female president will feature a 40-member Cabinet with just four women, women’s rights groups said yesterday during a protest outside DPP headquarters in Taipei.
During the protest, an article published in yesterday’s Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) by women’s rights campaigner Lee Yuan-chen (李元貞) was read out loud.
Lee, who served as national policy adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), criticized the gender imbalance in the proposed Cabinet.
Photo: CNA
Tsai’s gender equality policy in 2012 promised that the gender ratio in governments — whether local or central, and regardless of pay grade — would at least be one-third women, but the last time there were so few women in the Cabinet was under then-premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) in 1997, she wrote. Tsai’s recent predecessors have done better, Lee said, referring to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chen.
Representatives of the Awakening Foundation, the Homemaker Union Consumer Co-op, the Garden of Hope Foundation and other groups put on a short play during the protest, showing Tsai closing a door behind her and picking just male staff.
Lee said she turned down an invitation to Tsai’s post-inaugural banquet because even though she is happy to see Tsai become the nation’s first female president, Tsai has “failed to live up to Peng’s legacy of introducing women to politics in the DPP.”
Peng, director of the DPP’s Women’s Affairs Department before she was murdered on Nov. 30, 1996, in Kaohsiung, is remembered for pushing for a legal amendment guaranteeing that at least one-quarter of all politicians should be female.
Garden of Hope Foundation executive manager Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said women’s rights groups will not give Tsai a honeymoon period after her inauguration because of her disappointing performance so far.
The groups plan to closely monitor Tsai’s administration.
Premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) evidently lacks a sensitivity to gender issues since his Cabinet list includes many middle-aged to elderly men, Chi said, adding that the groups would watch how Lin’s Cabinet handles gender issues.
Executive Yuan spokesperson-designate Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said that while Lin had reached out to many women, the “current results are not what was anticipated, but we are working toward that goal.”
The incoming government’s policies and decisions would emphasize the different thoughts across genders and seek to encourage women to enter politics, Tung said, adding that the incoming government hoped for “women in government’ to be a mainstream value in Taiwan’s future.
FRIDAY, SATURDAY: While Typhoon Champi might weaken, officials warned about large waves, while some transport services and tourist spots have been affected Typhoon Champi is forecast to have the greatest effect on Taiwan tomorrow and on Saturday, with a sea warning issued late last night and a land warning expected afternoon today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm’s projected track has shifted slightly westward and it could begin moving away from Taiwan toward Japan’s Kyushu island on Saturday, with the warnings potentially lifted as early as Saturday afternoon, CWA forecaster Chang Cheng-chuan (張承傳) said. As of yesterday afternoon, Champi was about 910km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, CWA data showed. Its maximum sustained winds had weakened slightly to
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday urged China not to exploit typhoons to assert jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait. The CGA issued the remarks after it found that China was shadowing eight Japan Coast Guard ships that sheltered in Taiwan proper’s western waters due to Typhoon Champi. Eight Japan Coast Guard (JCG) vessels sailed southward along the Taiwan Strait median line from 6am on Thursday, reaching waters southwest of Penghu County’s Cimei Island (七美島), outside Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which extends 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the territorial sea baseline, it said. As the Japanese ships prepared for the typhoon, they were followed by
STAY CAUTIOUS: Rain is expected to begin easing this afternoon, but a CWA forecaster said that if the storm stalls or loops on its approach, heavy winds are likely Typhoon Champi, which caused widespread damage and injuries, and prompted road closures and evacuations across Taiwan yesterday, is expected to continue to bring heavy rain this morning, with up to 900mm of rain forecast for mountainous areas of New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. At one point a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi was packing gusts of about 191kph near its center as of 8:30pm, the CWA said. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung; and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin
TOTAL COVERAGE: Champi’s outer band is expected to blanket the entire nation, with the center coming closest tonight or tomorrow before leaving tomorrow evening School and work across most of the nation has been canceled today, as Typhoon Champi is expected to skirt the northeast edge of Taiwan proper. As of 9pm, all municipalities except for Kinmen County had announced cancelations. Taitung County last night announced closures on Green Island (綠島) and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), but did not announce for the rest of the county until 6am today. Stock market settlements scheduled for today would be postponed to the next business day, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. The announcements came after the Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday expanded its land warning for Champi to 19 regions
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