Ms. Anna A. Kao, President of the Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), attended the International Women's Day Breakfast Forum 2019—More Power Together organized by the Australian Office in Taiwan on March 29 to talk about the Taiwanese government's efforts to promote gender equality and the progress of related goals.
Noting that Taiwan had already had a female Vice President from 2000 to 2008, Ms. Kao said the election of President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016 demonstrates that Taiwanese society is accepting of female leadership. She said that at present, 43 of Taiwan's 113 legislators (38%) and seven of Taiwan's 22 mayors (32%) are female, adding that Taiwan's legislators had actively sought to form alliances with overseas parliaments. Remarking that Hilda C. Heine, President of the Marshall Islands, had just invited President Tsai to attend the Pacific Women Leaders' Coalition Conference to speak for Taiwan from a female perspective, Ms. Kao also mentioned that MOFA had been actively adopting measures to advance gender equality, and that 51 percent of staff and 57 percent of section chiefs are female, saying that the government's Gender Equality Commission had effectively safeguarded fair opportunities for promotion since its establishment in 2007.
Article 11 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women stipulates that signatories should take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the workplace and encourage women's participation in public life. These measures aim to facilitate the participation of women, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries, and to fully develop women's potential with the purpose of promoting prosperity within their families and among wider society.