Last week, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) attended a game promoting women’s baseball, showing that the government is making strides to promote gender equality in sports. That creates a vision not seen often in many societies, in which a male president supports men’s baseball and a female vice-president promotes women’s baseball. It represents a movement toward a new era in Taiwanese baseball culture.
This moment holds major significance for women’s participation in the sport, as this era needs political leadership to develop and promote suitable national sports policies, and allocate adequate budgets to help bolster and hone a competitive and sustainable baseball and sporting culture.
Two reasons for this are as follows:
Taiwan women’s baseball is No. 2 in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) — second only to Japan.
The International Olympics Committee now emphasizes the importance of gender equality in sports, and with baseball making a return to the Olympics at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the government should create a sustainable plan and do the needed legwork to strengthen Taiwan Women’s Baseball before that time.
This year’s Paris Olympics saw a stronger emphasis on gender equality in sports and the trend is toward equal participation in competitions by male and female athletes.
Women’s baseball is to feature at the 2028 and 2032 Olympic Games, to be held in the US and Australia respectively, two nations recognized as having strong gender equality in sports.
Add to this that the WBSC promotes women’s baseball on more than three continents, and it is clear that this important and Olympic medal-conferring sport needs government and public attention.
However, Taiwan needs a plan to amply fund and sustain women’s sports.
Starting from the elementary-school level, the nation should create more baseball training and competition opportunities for girls and women.
The nation’s development of baseball has long been centered on male athletes, with women only playing the role of spectators.
In 1996, when the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association noticed a steady drop in interest in baseball, and the vast majority of schools were banning baseball, it set up a “Le-Le Tee-ball League” (樂樂棒球) for children to play the sport.
However, at the time, only male players were seen as the foundation for the future of baseball in Taiwan, while girls were encouraged to just be fans or become softball players.
Twenty years later, thanks to the dedication and hard work of the Taiwan Women’s Baseball Promotion Association, as well as fans including Hsiao, their work has provided a platform for girls and women to hone their skills as far as they want to and allowed them to play ball just as boys and men do, helping them achieve personnel advancement and shattering the glass ceiling of “tradition.”
Women’s baseball is reaching new heights. If the government and society actively implement the UN Sustainable Development goal of gender equality, helping girls and women progress from simply being a spectator to actively hitting and throwing out on the diamond and competing, it would be hugely valuable in helping Taiwanese society advance and would also raise the nation’s visibility in the international community.
Charles Yu is a professor and the head of National Chung Hsing University’s Graduate Institute of Sports Health and Management.
Translated by Tim Smith
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