Taiwan’s first female president is coming to the end of her time in power. Her achievement in the winning the top office is notable in the region as she is the only female leader in Asia in recent decades who didn't follow a family member into power. But what has Tsai Ing-wen's impact been on women's empowerment in Taiwan? Louise Watt spoke to Darice Chang, ambassador for Women’s March Taiwan.
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00:00 Tsai Ing-wen made headlines in 2016 when she became Taiwan's first female president.
00:06 Now as she prepares to step down, how do you see her legacy in terms of female empowerment?
00:13 So I feel like it's very much a mixed bag, right?
00:15 So on the first hand, she was incredibly impressive as a woman and also as a politician that does
00:21 not come from a political background.
00:24 Her background is actually in academics and specifically economy.
00:29 So she rose through the DPP ranks as someone who was known for being very astute, very
00:33 smart.
00:34 She's very good at what she does.
00:38 And I think in her presidency was also difficult because she does have to deal with Taiwan's
00:45 challenging position in the international stage, right?
00:49 And also I think during her election both times, we also saw how misogynistic Taiwanese
00:56 society can be, especially to someone who is a woman and who is unmarried.
01:01 So there have been, like during her time, there was a lot of remarks about how, you
01:05 know, she's unemotional, she doesn't understand the family, things like that.
01:09 However, if we look at her policy specifically, we do feel like a lot more could have been
01:15 done specifically in terms of maternal care and the rights of women to their own bodies.
01:23 Like for example, in Taiwan right now, you can get subsidies to freeze your eggs as a
01:28 woman.
01:29 However, you can't unfreeze those eggs and fertilize them without the signature of a
01:33 husband.
01:34 Tsai Ing-wen has been criticized by women's groups for not having more female cabinet
01:39 members.
01:40 Do you think she should have done or could have done more for women politically?
01:44 Yes, definitely.
01:46 Tsai's cabinet was only 16.7% female, which people thought was really good.
01:51 However, this actually falls short of the 33% set by the executive Yuan that would be
01:56 their ideal proportion, right?
01:59 And 33% is obviously less than 50%, which is the proportion of women that exist in society.
02:05 We've also seen, for example, during the Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou presidencies, that
02:11 women's representation at the higher echelons of political office were actually at 20%.
02:16 I do feel like more effort could have been put into cultivating female talent or women's
02:21 talent to take on these higher roles.
02:25 Has she inspired girls to aim for the presidency or be more ambitious in other respects, do
02:30 you think?
02:31 I do think a lot of women and girls look at her and they see her being accomplished in
02:36 her field, leadership of a country.
02:40 That's obviously very empowering.
02:44 It's nice to see yourself reflected in those kinds of positions, right?
02:48 So I think that she has done, at least on a representative level, a very good job.
02:52 Yeah.
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