President Ma celebrates women’s rights

2015-04-21

President Ma Ying-jeou said April 18 that the development of women’s rights in Taiwan is on the fast-track, with significant headway achieved across all segments of society in recent years.

“The government is committed to ensuring gender equality,” Ma said. “By enacting amendments to the ROC Constitution, Taiwan has effectively eliminated gender discrimination while promoting the dignity and safety of women.”

Ma made the remarks at an anniversary event for the ROC National Women’s League, which was established in 1950 by late first lady Soong Mei-ling.

According to the president, NWL has played a key role in laying the foundations for improving women’s rights in Taiwan. “This resulted in the announcement of the Enforcement Act of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 2011, seeking to align Taiwan with the international standards outlined by the U.N. treaty,” he said.

“Further measures such as the Regulations for Implementing Unpaid Parental Leave for Raising Children were enacted to advance the cause. And Taiwan’s women experienced particularly significant advances in the areas of earnings, education, entrepreneurship, labor participation and political involvement.”

Ma said another area of real improvement is reducing the gender pay gap. “Female-to-male earnings ratio is now at 82 percent, while women’s labor participation rate rose to 50.6 percent as of year-end 2014.”

In terms of education, women enjoy a considerable advantage over men in Taiwan, the president said, adding that 41 percent possessed tertiary education compared to 39 percent of men in 2013. “Tellingly, there were 360,000 more women with tertiary qualifications than men among those aged 25 to 44.”

Political participation of women is also on the rise, Ma said. “The current makeup of the ROC Legislature is 33 percent women, a number that stands at 38 percent in the Examination Yuan and 50 percent in Control Yuan.”

The president said compared with other countries and territories in the region, Taiwan’s women are more active and socially engaged. “A total of 5 percent of our startups are run by women, higher than 2 percent in Japan and South Korea.

“Looking ahead, we will continue making solid progress on creating a level playing field between the sexes and transforming Taiwan into an even friendlier society for women.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=229501&CtNode=413)