Vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) on Thursday touted Taiwan’s progress in gender equality by saying that the country should aim for women to make up 50 percent of lawmakers in the Legislative Yuan, at an event celebrating diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA).
At the DEIA forum held by the American Institute in Taiwan and the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan (AmCham), where Hsiao gave the closing remarks, she said Taiwan could reach 50 percent female representation in the legislature, as it already had 40 percent when she left the Legislative Yuan in 2020.
“When I first joined the legislature [in 2002], only 20 percent were women,” she said, adding that over the years the legislator has seen a steady increase in female representation.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
In the ninth legislature for which Hsiao was elected a member in 2016, 38.1 percent of lawmakers were women and in the next legislature in 2020 that rose to 41.6 percent.
“Of course, we have a goal of making it 50 percent, and I’m sure we will get there pretty soon,” Hsiao said.
In the current legislature, which was elected in January, 41.6 percent of lawmakers are women.
On female participation in politics, the vice president-elect also said that Taiwan has “a record that is better than the US,” having elected the first female president and now the second female vice president, Hsiao herself.
The audience laughed in response.
Of the 535 members of the 118th US Congress, 155 are women, representing 29 percent of all lawmakers.
To show Taiwan’s progress “beyond statistics and representation,” Hsiao said that when she was in the legislature more than 20 years ago, “we often heard comments made on gender-based prejudices in the Legislative Yuan.”
“Those comments are no longer acceptable on today’s floor, as they will be condemned,” she said. “They now occasionally appear, but they are less tolerated.”
In July last year, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration “took extraordinarily swift actions to pass amendments to the three gender equality laws — the Gender Equality and Employment Act (性別平等工作法), Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法) and Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法),” Hsiao said.
The laws were amended after a spate of accusations that became known as Taiwan’s #MeToo movement, when various accusations of sexual harassment and abuse were made across Taiwanese society, from politics to business and the media.
She pledged that proactive measures would be taken to ensure fairness in the regulatory environment and the legal environment, and that “broader awareness and education initiatives” would continue to be supported by the government.
AmCham Taiwan’s 2024 DEIA Celebration Forum, aims to promote the principles of DEIA and create a platform for businesses to co-learn with governments through partnerships and the sharing of best practices, the business chamber said.
An executive order signed by US President Biden and enacted in 2021 said that all US federal agencies “must remove barriers to equal opportunity and provide resources and opportunities to strengthen and advance DEIA,” AmCham said.
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