President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) need to create a more gender-balanced Cabinet, several outgoing members of the Fourth Gender Equality Committee said yesterday.
Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights cofounder Victoria Hsu (許秀雯) said that she and other members whose two-year term ended yesterday believe the gender ratio of the Cabinet is “severely unbalanced.”
Despite the progress the nation has made over the past few years in gender equality, and the election and re-election of the nation’s first female president, why is the current Cabinet the “most male?” asked Hsu, who also served on the Third Gender Equality Committee.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation member Huang Shu-ling (黃淑玲) said women make up just 6.9 percent of the new Cabinet.
National Alliance of Taiwan Women’s Associations member Chen Hsiu-hui (陳秀惠) said that after protests from women’s groups, Tsai in May 2016 wrote on Facebook that her administration would try to make up for its shortcoming in terms of the gender ratio of Cabinet members.
Chen said she was worried the nation’s first female president would become the nation’s only one.
The emergence of the next female president should not be left to chance, Hsu said.
The outgoing committee members urged the government to establish laws governing the Cabinet’s gender ratio in line with the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, for which the legislature on May 20, 2011, passed an enforcement act that took effect on Jan. 1, 2012.
The Gender Equality Committee consists of 27 to 35 members, including the premier and vice premier, who serve as convener and deputy convener respectively.
Committee members are appointed by the premier and can include up to nine professionals selected from among the public, and nine representatives from gender or women’s groups.
Executive Yuan spokesman Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘) said the government would take the suggestions into consideration.
A list of new committee members would be announced after Su approves it, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS