【By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter,
Additional Reporting By Jake Chung / Staff Writer】
Less than half of the candidates in the Nov. 29 mayoral and commissioner elections have a specific agenda for promoting women’s rights, the Awakening Foundation said yesterday.
“Candidates love to play the ‘wife’ and ‘mother’ cards toward the end of the election cycle,” said foundation board supervisor Yang Wan-ying (楊婉瑩), chair of National Chengchi University’s political science department, referring to candidates holding campaign events with their wives and mothers to attract women’s votes.
Candidates should play a “gender equality” card instead, she said.
The foundation said that statements by most candidates in support of women’s rights should be considered empty promises unless they are fleshed out with specific policy content.
To remedy the lack of emphasis on woman’s rights in candidate platforms, the foundation asked all candidates whether they would be willing to sign specific campaign pledges on gender equality, including using woman for at least one-third of political appointments and rigorously enforcing the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法).
Cities and counties nationwide have substantial room for improvement on both counts, the foundation said.
Foundation statistics show that in terms of political appointments, women fill at least 20 percent of first-level administrative positions in only half of the cities and counties.
As for protecting gender equality at work, more than half of the cities and counties saw fewer than 10 cases related to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment, said foundation vice chairwoman Chuang Chiao-ju (莊喬汝), who is a lawyer.
She blamed the low case numbers on lax enforcement, which she said made women less likely to report discrimination for fear of retaliation from their employers.
“We hope candidates will make it easier for female workers to appeal such situations and also make public the names of the business owners who are in violation of the act,” Chuang said.
Lee Yen-jung (李晏榕), a standing member of the foundation’s board, raised the topic of same-sex relationships and said very few candidates are making the needs of the lesbian and gay communities a focus of their policies.
“We hope the candidates can effect a friendlier environment toward the lesbian and gay communities and protect their rights,” Lee said.
Lee also called on the candidates to provide policies focusing on women’s rights to better ensure gender equality.
Nationwide, fewer than half of the candidates from the Democratic Progressive Party and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have signed any of the foundation’s campaign pledges. No candidates in five cities and counties, including New Taipei City and Greater Tainan, have signed, the foundation said.
Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who became the subject of controversy in September over allegedly sexist comments, signed most of the pledges, but refused to promise to use women for one-third of political appointments.
Ko’s main rival, the KMT’s Sean Lien (連勝文), has not signed any of them, the foundation said.
The foundation, which began as a magazine in 1982, is a non-governmental organization that advocates for women’s rights and boost women’s participation in public affairs.
