President Ma Ying-jeou attended the opening ceremony of the 50th Anniversary Celebration and the 19th Convention of the Federation of Asia-Pacific Women's Associations (FAWA) on the morning of September 24. In an address to the assembled participants, he congratulated FAWA on its outstanding contributions over the years, and reiterated the intention of his administration to implement gender equality and safeguard women's rights.
The president noted that FAWA consists of members from 60 women's groups in 15 countries, and serves as one of the leading women's forums in the Asia Pacific region. Over the course of half a century, he said, FAWA has made outstanding contributions to regional cooperation among women's rights groups. This year marks the 100th International Women's Day, and FAWA is celebrating its 50th anniversary at this year's convention. The Republic of China was chosen as the venue for the FAWA Conventions of 1960, 1973 and 1988, so it has been 22 years since it was last held here. The president therefore took the opportunity to express his utmost respect and appreciation to Dr. Cecilia Koo, the Founding President of the National Council of Women of Taiwan, ROC, who deserves the credit for this year's convention being held in Taiwan again.
The president stated that the women's movement in Taiwan has evolved in parallel with such movements in other countries, and his administration has striven to improve Taiwan's gender policies since he took office in May 2008. After more than two years, and with the assistance of women's rights groups, the government's efforts have attained considerable success.
In the political sphere, for example, as of January last year all government agencies are required to assess both the positive and negative impacts that any potential legislation, or medium- and long-term programs, might have on gender equality.
In terms of organizational structure, the president stated that the Committee of Women's Rights Promotion was set up under the Executive Yuan as an advisory body, and there are plans afoot to change this into a Committee for Gender Equality when the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan is amended in the future. This new committee, to be headed by the premier, will be responsible for formulating gender equality policies, offering consultations and supervision, and integrating resources. Moreover, a new department for gender equality will be created under the Committee of Women’s Rights Promotion, with a regular budget and official personnel allocated to help it implement its policies.
With respect to the economy, since October 2008 the government has doubled the size limit on loans offered under a special government program to women to start up their own businesses, from NT$500,000 to NT$1 million. Over the past two years, the Council of Labor Affairs has also helped at least 165,000 women in Taiwan, as well as 4,200 new immigrant spouses from mainland China and other countries, to find employment.
In terms of social welfare, in May last year the government began allowing mothers and fathers of infants under three to take unpaid leave, so as to encourage both parents to share childcare duties. The government also provides these parents with a childcare allowance. By the end of last month, over 217,000 applications for parental leave had been filed, and some NT$3.46 billion in allowances paid.
On the education front, the president explained that schools at all levels are actively promoting gender equality, so as to eliminate discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, while in government agencies the topic of gender mainstreaming has also been made mandatory in life-long learning courses for public servants, in the hope that this will enable them to integrate gender equality into public policy.
In addition, the president stated, the Committee of Women's Rights Promotion and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs collaborated to complete the nation's first CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) country report in March last year. He said that after becoming president, he signed the instruments of ratification for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. He also ordered a thorough review of current domestic legislation to ascertain whether or not it conforms to these two covenants. In the future, the president added, we will follow this precedent to pass an enforcement act incorporating into domestic law the principles enshrined in CEDAW of the United Nations, so as to afford women more complete protections.
The president cited various facts and figures to illustrate how the political and economic influence of women in Taiwan has grown over the past two years. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2007, Taiwan ranked 21st among the countries surveyed in the Gender Development Index (GDI), and 22nd in the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). Of the 112 legislators in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan, 33 are women, which is very nearly 30%. Moreover, 16.2% of political appointees in 2009 were women, up 10.3 percentage points from 1999. Furthermore, 24.1% of senior career civil service positions in 2009 were filled by women, up 7.7 percentage points from 1999. The government's policy goal is to have women in no less than 25% of these positions, so that women can have a greater say in policy-making decisions.
The president also noted that the wage gap has narrowed. In 2009, women in non-agricultural sectors earned 80% of that earned by men, which represents an increase of 13.9 percentage points over a 20-year period. Although governments around the world have been promoting gender equality and trying to bridge the salary gap between men and women, a gap still persists due to the different nature of their jobs. Taiwan has, however, made some improvements in this area. In 2008, wage disparity between men and women in Taiwan was 20.8%, which is down 12.5 percentage points from 33.3% in 1990 and comparable to the United States. These statistics indicate that women here have gained much influence in both the political and economic spheres over the past two years.
The president specially pointed out that many advanced countries are confronted with the problem of slowing population growth. Once population growth becomes negative, a country's overall development is put at risk. We therefore believe, he said, that having children is no longer just a private concern, but a public one, also. The government therefore has an obligation to come up with a set of measures that encourages more women to have children, and that encourages both parents to share in childcare duties. Moreover, the government is also working hard to get the business world to incorporate gender equality into its management culture.
The president stated that Dr. Leticia Shahani was specially invited to this year's convention to give a keynote speech on "Envisioning the Future of Asia-Pacific Women." He also noted that participants would be exchanging views on numerous themes of key importance to Asian women, such as "Women's Health," "Women and the Environment," "Building Women's Leadership" and the "Impact of the World's Financial Crisis on Women." The president closed by expressing his confidence that the discussions would do much to advance women's rights in Asian countries.