If behind every successful man is a woman, as the saying goes, what's behind the success of a woman? Taiwanese girls were given the chance to hear answers to that question from female pioneers this summer at a "Girls' Working Day" program sponsored by the women's group Garden of Hope.
This summer's Girls' Working Day program is the first of its kind in the country. The program was inspired by the US' "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," foundation representatives said. Hoping a similar event would help Taiwanese girls get a glimpse of their dream careers, the women's group decided last month to present Taiwan's first Girls' Working Day.
The program, originally planned for just one day, stretched into a series of events that ended last week. Through the program, over 100 Taiwanese middle school to college-age girls signed up to follow older women in their dream professions.
Career guidance was one of the program's goals, Garden of Hope executive director Chi Hui-jung (
Through interaction with Tai-wan's professional women -- from makeup counter assistants to a snack store entrepreneur to the nation's Vice Premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) -- Chi expressed her hope that participants would realize that the future is boundless.
The program paired up young girls throughout the nation with professional women, with some getting the opportunity to shadow businesspeople and leading female politicians such as the vice premier.
One such lucky girl was Chen Ming-chu (陳美珠), a high school student from Taichung.
Chen, who hopes to study communications and media broad-casting in college, said she learned a lot from shadowing cable channel ETTV executive director Joanna Lei (雷倩) last week.
When she met Lei, Chen said, she was dazzled by the respect and honor she was given.
"The whole day, it was like we were dreaming," Chen said. "There were three of us, and wherever we went with Lei, people would be really polite and respectful. Can you imagine what that was like? It was like we were really important too. We followed Lei to an international conference she was attending where they talked about Taiwan's international image, and everyone was talking in English! It was so global ... we were introduced to many people who were the directors of this and that company, people we would have never dreamed of meeting, people valued at millions and millions of NT [dollars]."
One instance in particular sparked in Chen a passion for accomplishment.
"When we were with Lei, someone cooked some herbal rice porridge for all of us," Chen said. "But when we were eating, we noticed that [people] would remind us to finish our food, but no one said anything to the directors and leaders when they didn't finish. At that moment, all of us swore that we would one day become important ourselves, so that no one would be able to tell us what to do."
Chen said she learned a lot from Lei about the ingredients for success.
"I asked her what she did when she encountered difficulties in her life," Chen said.
"And she told me, `When it's rainy out, what do you do? You put on a rain jacket.' Although she's faced a lot of problems, Lei told me that she didn't really think they were worth talking about, because problems and difficulties are pretty natural. They happen, and you get through it," she said.
Fellow program participant Huang Ming-chun (
"I originally thought from watching TV that politicians just showed up for pictures," Huang said. "But after following Cheng, I realized that politicians really do a lot and have hard jobs."
The mentors stressed the importance of gender equality in the government and business worlds. Especially in places such as Kinmen and Matsu in Fuchien Province, young girls need exposure to female leaders, said the Fuchien Provincial Government's Gao Gan-hua (
"Offshore women are very traditional, unlike [on Taiwan proper], where attitudes towards women are more open," Gao said. "For example, in the local government here in Kinmen, there is almost no female representation among government workers."
Gao, who is the province's highest-level female government official, said that when she learned about the Girls' Working Day program she insisted that Garden of Hope bring it to Kinmen.
"Women in Kinmen are afraid to speak up and reach out to each other," Gao said. "Through the program, I hope that girls in Kinmen will be able to break free of this and see for themselves that there are competent and influential women who have made it, even in the offshore territories."
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