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.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
RSS