While thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday in cities around the world to speak out against gender inequality and violence against women on International Women’s Day, Taiwan was relatively quiet.
This was partly due to many events, including the Women’s March Taiwan, being canceled, downsized or moved online due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, in a nation where women’s rights are relatively advanced, there does not seem to be the urgency to protest and fight back, compared with, for example, Mexico, where an average of 10 women are killed per day.
In conservative nations, such as Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, women risked their lives just to march, and there were crackdowns against demonstrators in various cities and open threats from the patriarchy.
Instead of a public outcry against the exploitation of women, the mood in Taiwan seemed to be celebratory, as President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) thanked the women in various roles on the front lines in the battle against COVID-19, while countless businesses offered discounts and special deals for female customers on Sunday.
The Foundation of Women’s Rights Promotion and Development hailed Taiwan being named Asia’s leader in gender equality last month by the World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law project, noting that the nation is far ahead of its neighbors in female participation in politics, workplace equality as well as respect for and acceptance of gender diversity.
However, just how equal is the regional leader in equality? The numbers show that things are far from equal. For example, the Ministry of Labor last week said that there was still a 14.2 percent wage gap last year between men and women, although that number was the lowest it has ever been — down from 17.9 percent in 2009 — and significantly better than those of Japan, South Korea and the US.
So Taiwan should be proud, but it should also be wary of creating an atmosphere where people feel that complete gender equality has been achieved.
A survey by online job bank yes123 released last week found that more than half of female respondents have experienced workplace discrimination, especially regarding plans for marriage and children or their appearance.
There is still some way to go in societal attitudes and breaking stereotypes. While Taiwan has the highest proportion of female legislators of any parliament in Asia — more than 40 percent — misogynistic and homophobic remarks still marred the recent presidential election campaign.
From digs against Tsai for being single and childless to ridiculous, unnecessary, sexist remarks, Taiwan’s politicians set an awful example for their constituents, belying the nation’s progressive standings.
Other gender issues that should not be overlooked include Taiwan lagging behind more than 80 percent of the world’s nations in the length of maternity leave, the significant gender disparity and difficulty of female advancement in the better-paying high-tech sectors.
So yes, there is a lot to be happy about — especially in a world where it is often unsafe just to be female — but there is obviously still much work and education to be done.
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