Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang shared her insights on gender equality in the post COVID-19 world during a webinar Friday. The webinar focused on women’s economic empowerment, and was organized by the foreign ministry and the Foundation of Women’s Rights Promotion and Development.
Tang said that Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. She also said that close to 42% of lawmakers in Taiwan’s Legislature are women and that the gender salary gap has narrowed from 17% ten years ago to 14% now.
However,Tang said the proportion of female graduates in mathematics and science is less than 25% in Taiwan. She said these fields are still dominated by men, so there is still room for improvement.
Tang said that Taiwan has found that digitization of the national health insurance system combined with the broadband network helped women get on the frontline in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. She said digitization has also motivated more women to become entrepreneurs.