President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday encouraged women to become whoever they want to be, while expressing her hope that the media would stop using the term “strong women” to describe those with successful careers.
Tsai made the remarks in a video recorded for a forum held by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taipei to mark International Women’s Day tomorrow.
Over the past few years, the nation has seen many women working hard in their professions and challenging gender stereotypes in various industries, Tsai said.
For example, an increasing number of women work as soldiers, police officers and firefighters, protecting the public and their property, no matter how tough the missions are, she said.
Numerous female physicians, pharmacists, healthcare professionals and researchers have made significant contributions to the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.
Tsai said that she hopes the “successful woman” would not become just another gender stereotype, but a natural part of society.
One day, people will hopefully no longer hear “strong women” in the media to describe women with successful careers, she said.
The government should implement more measures to break gender stereotypes and promote gender equality, she added.
The theme of the forum this year was the “courage” of women in Taiwan in facing various challenges and meeting the needs of life’s different stages.
Six female panelists with different backgrounds were invited to discuss issues such as postpartum care and childcare, the reproductive rights of women with disabilities, widowed women living alone, and elderly women in retirement.
In his opening speech, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that despite the vast majority of attendees at the day’s events being women, he believed more men should attend to better understand the topics.
“Women have the courage to be persistent; to not give up, to be positive; to explore all of the possible ways to achieve a desired solution; and to be gentle,” he said. “Gentleness is an excellent trait found in many women, but it should be found in men, too.”
Some goals cannot be met by an insistence on forcing one’s way through, Chen said, adding that showing some gentleness and reason might open up new possibilities for progress.
“The power of gentleness is key to our impressive performance in fighting the virus,” he said.
Many healthcare workers and employees at centralized care facilities are women who have shown that difficult situations can be solved through compassionate care, rather than tough discipline and punishments, Chen said.
Asked how he defines “courage,” Chen said that courage comes from caring — such as for human beings or for nature — because when people care about someone or something, they find the strength to help or improve a situation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS