A group of 19 female veterans yesterday morning reported to a location in Taoyuan to start five days of volunteer reservist training during the five-day live-fire part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises, making them the first women to do so.
The Han Kuang exercises are Taiwan’s largest annual war games and involve all military branches.
The highest-ranking reservists among them were discharged army lieutenants and sergeant majors, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Photo: CNA
They specialized in transportation, personnel, intelligence, communications, political warfare, automobile driving, missile launches, radar operations, replenishment and food services while they were on active duty, it said.
The female reservists would be trained to be responsible for logistics, administration and resupply missions if war were to break out, the ministry said.
The 19 women are among more than 120 reservists that reported to Yang Mei Junior High School in Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) for the five-day training.
The women are to undergo the same training as their male counterparts during the program, the ministry said.
The military in January announced that it would start asking female reservists to volunteer for the same reservist training as their male counterparts later this year.
The first group of 14 female veterans underwent the training in May.
Previously, the military said it only trained male reservists, because it did not have sufficient capacity to accommodate men and women.
Participants in reservist training have for decades complained that it is a form of gender discrimination.
While men in Taiwan are subject to compulsory military conscription and reservist training, women are not, but they can join the armed forces voluntarily to serve as soldiers and officers.
The ministry did not say that it is offering military training for female reservists because of an increased risk of war with China, but rather that it was doing so because all veterans, regardless of gender, should have the same responsibilities.
As of 2021, 8,915 women were listed as reservists, while 15 percent of Taiwan’s 180,000 active military personnel were women, military figures showed.
The ministry said that 220 female reservists have volunteered to undergo reservist training this year.
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