Taiwan leads East Asian countries in gender equality of legislatures with the highest ratio of female to male lawmakers, the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee (GEC) said in a statement yesterday.
Female lawmakers in Taiwan accounted for 41.6 percent of the Legislative Yuan in 2020, and rose to 42.5 percent this month, when Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) won a legislative by-election in Taichung’s second district, the committee said.
The updated figure is a new record and places Taiwan ahead of other countries in Asia, including Singapore and South Korea, the committee added.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The United Arab Emirates has the highest proportion of female lawmakers in Asia (50 percent), and the third-highest in the world, the committee said in its report titled Gender At A Glance in the Republic of China (Taiwan), which it released yesterday.
Aside from an increase in female lawmakers, the proportion of female judges and the proportion of female ministers without portfolio have exceeded 50 percent, the report said.
In 2020, Taiwan also recorded the highest rate of female participation in the workforce in a decade among women aged 45 to 64 — 52.3 percent — while the percentage of women of all ages in the labor force rose by 1.5 percentage points to 51.4 percent from 2010 to 2020, it said.
During the same period, the percentage of men in the labor force rose 0.7 percentage points to 67.2 percent, it added.
In 2020, the average wage gap between male and female workers was 14.8 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than a year earlier, it said.
However, gender bias remains prevalent in industries historically dominated by men, it said.
For example, in the construction industry, the percentage of registered female architects who applied to open their own firms was 8.46 percent, it said.
Further education and improvement in “personal safety and justice” are also needed, the report said, adding that females were victims in 80.4 percent of the 9,212 sexual assault cases reported in 2020.
Since 2020, the percentage of sexual assaults with female victims has increased, with 70 percent of sexual harassment and assault cases on school campuses involving women, it said.
The coast guard on Friday took a Chinese fishing boat and the 17 people on board into custody, after it rammed into a patrol boat while attempting to flee. A 100-tonne coast guard vessel at about 8am discovered a Chinese fishing boat illegally operating in waters about 11 nautical miles (20.4km) northwest of Hsinchu, the Hsinchu offshore flotilla of the Coast Guard Administration said. The crew refused to allow law enforcement to board the ship and attempted to flee, it added. The coast guard vessel and another ship chased the fishing boat for about a half hour, during which time the Chinese boat
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Beijing was trying to “annex” Taiwan, while China said its recent series of drills near Taiwan are aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces. The Ministry of National Defense earlier this month said that it had observed dozens of Chinese fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby. The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said last week. Asked about the spurt
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Monday said he would not attend the official Double Ten National Day celebrations for the first time this year, as its English name, “Taiwan National Day,” implies “Taiwan independence.” Writing on Facebook, Ma said he has attended every National Day celebration since entering public service 40 years ago, but “with an exceedingly heavy heart,” has decided to reject this year’s invitation. For the past three years, the government under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has used “Taiwan National Day” for the event’s official English-language title, leaving the “Republic of China” nowhere to be found, he said. The move
RUNWAY UPGRADES: Airports and ports mainly scattered around southwestern Japan are being given major overhauls, primarily serving as civilian-use facilities Japan has chosen 33 airports and ports as candidates for improvement to enhance military capabilities, with a particular focus on infrastructure that could be utilized in a Taiwan emergency, according to a recent report in Japan’s Nikkei Shimbun. Citing the Japanese government’s fiscal budget proposal for next year, the newspaper said Toyko is to name some facilities as essential bases and receive funding for upgrades in line with the revamped national security strategy published last year. According to an unofficial policy document drafted last month and reviewed by the Nikkei, the Japanese government designated 14 airports and 19 ports for improvement, including