President Tsai Ing-wen praised the winners of the 2017 Ten Outstanding Young Women Awards for their contributions to society and vowed to eliminate gender bias and create gender-friendly workplaces during a ceremony March 8 in Taipei City.
Launched in 1966, the biennial event is held as part of celebrations for International Women’s Day. This year’s winners include representatives from the fields of academic research, entrepreneurship, firefighting, justice, medicine, the military, nursing, the performing arts, sports and technology.
The president stressed that the government is working to strengthen family support systems so as to help relieve the burdens faced by many women. She said that women in Taiwan must be able to choose the roles they want to play in society.
As part of the government’s efforts to enhance awareness of gender issues, the Executive Yuan recently launched the Gender Equality Observing System on its website to help raise public awareness of related issues and resources. Using gender-specific information gathered from home and abroad and stored in government databases, GEOS offers relevant statistics and analysis in areas such as education, employment, family structures, health care, media, personal safety, policymaking and technology.
In one of the first reports released on the GEOS website, a research team from the National Tsing Hua University in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu City points out that women currently hold 38.1 percent of Taiwan’s legislative seats, an increase from 35.5 percent in 2014. The current figure is near the political equality standard of 40 percent promoted by the EU. (KTJ-E)
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