Tsai Ing-wen's new cabinet, the most "male" in history: What does the female participation rate mean?

When the President takes office on 20 May 2020, the new Cabinet of the Executive Council will be published. Of the 42 government officials in the new cabinet, only two are women, namely, Minister of Labor Xu Mingchun and Fair Party Chairman Huang Meixuan, and according to the women's new article, councillor Tang Feng has said that the personnel information he gave to the Executive Council "gender" filled in the "no" and therefore not counted.

Photo: Office of the Press And Communication Service

That means the proportion of women in the new cabinet is only 4.76 per cent, a record low for Taiwan's newly elected president. After the news came out, it drew criticism from many women's groups.

However, when women's groups and gender scholars protested about the incident, some said it was "taken out of numbers alone" and even said that "the ability not to look at gender" should have been. In response, the gender scholar Chen Meihua replied: "This sentence is never said to men, because men are tacitly recognized as ability; 」

In fact, as early as 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen became president, she caused similar controversy. At the time, only four of the 40 cabinet members were women, and Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post: "I know that the gender ratio of cabinet members has let everyone down." and promised to do their best in the future to smooth out the shortfall.

Image: Tsai Ing-wen Facebook Screenshot

"I fully understand that the emergence of a woman president does not necessarily equate to the promotion of women as a society as a whole. I write this in particular here, not only in response, introspection, but also as a reminder to myself. Tsai Ing-wen

Now, four years on, after Tsai Ing-wen's re-election and cabinet reshuffle, we have not waited for the desired outcome. What can you think of this when the new cabinet is 95 per cent male? Why is the proportion of female cabinet members so important? What is the gender meaning behind it? Let's discuss it from the following point of view.

Is the quota for women "equal" or "privileged"?

Article 23 of the General Recommendation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) article 23 Political and Public Life: "Priority is given to female nominees where the same conditions are met by potential appointees; 」

Photo: CEDAW Information Network -Afp

The Women's New Knowledge Foundation believes that Taiwan signed CEDAW as early as 2007 and completed the domestic implementation of the law, but also to do its best.

The existence value and significance and value of women's quotas are in that they are free from the glass ceiling or social structure and have the opportunity to become politicians.

"A new study by Huang Changling, a scholar who specializes in women's participation in politics in Taiwan, is a comparison of local elections in Taiwan, which shows that women who are protected and elected are no less qualified than the male candidates they squeeze out, and in many cases, these elected women are better qualified than those who lose the election. Yan Weiwei. Are female politicians really worse? . Vegetable Market Politics

We need to see the context behind women's quotas. It is not a privilege, but a path to parity. If one day, women's quotas no longer exist and women's political participation no longer needs to be specifically raised for discussion, it may be the day when gender parity is truly achieved.

"People's choices are never just choices, and what options are in a person's choice often come from the shape of the environment, intrinsic values, and social environment." 」
"Women who "choose" not to enter politics or "choose" not to continue in the workplace may also be because the threshold of his life's choice of this path is much higher than that of others. 」
- Zhou Wei

Women are in the minority.

Why is it important for women to participate in politics? (Extended reading:2019 female politician sleaking: only attacks on gender, but fear of women being better than you"

When an organization has only a minority of women, it is difficult to properly reflect the real world of 1:1 between men and women, and the discussion or formulation of policies may lead to a single-view direction of governance, thereby ignoring the views of women in general.

Although the increase in women in the Cabinet does not guarantee gender equality in the implementation of policies, the more even the ratio of men to women, the better the chance that women's voices will be heard.

In 2020, when more and more people are beginning to value women's rights and agree with women's empowerment and support for empowerment, why are there still no more female heads or politicians in the political world? We want to challenge that.

We don't just have to pursue people, we have real sex.

In addition to the gender ratio of the composition, we can also go further to see whether these male cabinet members support gender equity and have sufficient gender awareness. Are they sex advocates? Will the future promote policies related to sex-leveling?

To achieve true gender parity, the "numbers" of the gender ratio are one of the measures, but other degrees are also worth looking at.

When tang Feng, the first non-gender member of the Cabinet, has appeared on the stage, we also expect that women's participation in politics will be given more attention. (Extended reading: Tang Feng: I actually have no transsexuality, has always been my own appearance ah! ) )

We acknowledge past efforts by the Tsai Ing-wen authorities on gender equality, which include promoting sex equality education through gay marriage. This challenge and protest, not to the governance team to completely deny, but to hope to lay the foundation for dialogue with it, and arouse the public's attention to women's participation in the regime.