President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of October 23 with participants in the Envisioning 2035 Roundtable – Women's Rights & Women's Leadership conference. In addition to welcoming the foreign guests to Taiwan to exchange opinions with women's leaders from the ROC, the president praised the event for its contributions to the promotion of women's rights.
In remarks, President Ma noted that this conference is being held by the World Young Women's Christian Association (World YWCA), which was founded in 1855. Over the course of a century and a half, the World YWCA has made outstanding contributions by tapping into the power of women worldwide to enhance their rights and promote education focusing on peace, he noted, adding that its work transcends racial and class lines. Meanwhile, he remarked, the YWCA of Taiwan is an important local women's group that for over 60 years has shown a sustained commitment to community service.
President Ma commented that ever since the ROC Constitution was implemented in 1947, the principle of gender equality has been consistently upheld here, and detailed legal provisions were adopted in the 1990s in a series of amendments to the Constitution, thereby ensuring safety and respect for women, and promoting substantive gender equality.
President Ma further stated that the United Nations Development Programme last year issued a gender development ranking for 149 countries. Even though the ROC is not included in the ranking because it lost its representation in the United Nations (UN) in 1971, judged by the same criteria Taiwan would have ranked second in the world in the Gender Inequality Index behind only the Netherlands. This indicates that the ROC is a nation with a high degree of gender equality. Moreover, the president stated, Taiwan is working in line with global initiatives to ensure women's rights. The government has already used the legislative process to incorporate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women into domestic law, he remarked, thus making it binding on Taiwan's government agencies and courts.
The president stated that women in Taiwan have won broad distinction in recent years. He specifically pointed to Master Cheng Yen (證嚴), who founded the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, HTC Corporation Chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅), and Ms. Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊), who is known for her commitment to doing good deeds. The president indicated that 24% of high-level political appointees in Taiwan are women, while women make up 33% of lawmakers in the Legislative Yuan. In addition, the female labor participation rate already exceeds 50%, he added. The president also noted that among the younger generation, females are more highly educated than their male counterparts.
President Ma mentioned that some 440,000 immigrant females are married to Taiwan citizens, and constitute about 2% of Taiwan's total population. In recent years, he said, the YWCA of Taiwan has strived to protect and enhance the rights of this group, which the president said is praiseworthy. He expressed hope that the visitors will meet with a wide range of people during their stay to further realize the protection of women's rights and promote world peace.
The delegation was led by World YWCA President Deborah Thomas-Austin and was accompanied to the Presidential Office by YWCA of Taiwan General Secretary Ping Lee (李萍) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Jacob Chang (張大同) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of NGO International Affairs Director General Wu Rong-chuan (吳榮泉).