Data from the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee yesterday highlighted improvements in gender equality in the nation.
Of the batch of legislators elected in January, 47 of 113, or 41.59 percent, are women, the committee said.
Data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union showed that Taiwan has the highest proportion of female legislators of any parliament in Asia, and the 16th-highest worldwide, it said.
The number of women in decisionmaking roles in government, schools and private companies has also steadily increased in the past few years, with women accounting for nearly 43 percent of such roles overall, the committee said.
The gender wage gap has narrowed as well: Over the past decade, the average hourly wage gap fell from 17.9 percent in 2009 to 14.2 percent last year, the committee’s data showed.
Separately yesterday, a survey released by the Chinese Institute of Engineers showed that only 13 percent of the nation’s engineers are women and most of them believe they have to work harder to receive the same recognition or promotions as their male counterparts.
The survey on the relationship between career development and gender differences in engineering, the first of its kind in Taiwan, was conducted among engineers at 39 enterprises, seven government agencies, and eight research and development companies that together employ 130,000 people.
A total of 1,307 valid samples were collected, including 531 from female respondents.
Women make up 15 percent of engineers in the civil engineering sector, 29 percent in architecture and urban planning, 8 percent in electrical and electronic engineering, 18 percent in information and communications technology and 17 percent in chemical engineering materials, the survey showed.
Forty-four percent of engineers in biomedical engineering are female, while women account for 17 percent of engineers in environmental engineering/green energy and 3 percent in mechanical engineering, it showed.
Across all sectors, women make up 13 percent of engineers, the survey found.
The institute, which is 109 years old, selected its first female director in 2012 and last year established a female engineers’ committee to bring more women into the engineering and science and technology sectors, institute president Liao Ching-jong (廖慶榮) said.
There is still a large gap between the number of female engineering graduates and those working in the field, Liao said.
More than 60 percent of male and female engineers saw no difference between male and female supervisors, but said that it is more difficult for women to find a job and be promoted in the field, said Hsueh Wen-jean (薛文珍), head of the institute’s female engineers’ committee, citing the survey.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
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TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
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