President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday encouraged women to become whoever they want to be, while expressing her hope that the media would stop using the term “strong women” to describe those with successful careers.
Tsai made the remarks in a video recorded for a forum held by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taipei to mark International Women’s Day tomorrow.
Over the past few years, the nation has seen many women working hard in their professions and challenging gender stereotypes in various industries, Tsai said.
For example, an increasing number of women work as soldiers, police officers and firefighters, protecting the public and their property, no matter how tough the missions are, she said.
Numerous female physicians, pharmacists, healthcare professionals and researchers have made significant contributions to the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.
Tsai said that she hopes the “successful woman” would not become just another gender stereotype, but a natural part of society.
One day, people will hopefully no longer hear “strong women” in the media to describe women with successful careers, she said.
The government should implement more measures to break gender stereotypes and promote gender equality, she added.
The theme of the forum this year was the “courage” of women in Taiwan in facing various challenges and meeting the needs of life’s different stages.
Six female panelists with different backgrounds were invited to discuss issues such as postpartum care and childcare, the reproductive rights of women with disabilities, widowed women living alone, and elderly women in retirement.
In his opening speech, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that despite the vast majority of attendees at the day’s events being women, he believed more men should attend to better understand the topics.
“Women have the courage to be persistent; to not give up, to be positive; to explore all of the possible ways to achieve a desired solution; and to be gentle,” he said. “Gentleness is an excellent trait found in many women, but it should be found in men, too.”
Some goals cannot be met by an insistence on forcing one’s way through, Chen said, adding that showing some gentleness and reason might open up new possibilities for progress.
“The power of gentleness is key to our impressive performance in fighting the virus,” he said.
Many healthcare workers and employees at centralized care facilities are women who have shown that difficult situations can be solved through compassionate care, rather than tough discipline and punishments, Chen said.
Asked how he defines “courage,” Chen said that courage comes from caring — such as for human beings or for nature — because when people care about someone or something, they find the strength to help or improve a situation.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS