Despite being the Republic of China's first female leader, Tsai Ing-wen has formed the most male-dominant Cabinet in history with just two female members. Activists have started a petition, criticizing Tsai's extremely gender-imbalanced Cabinet is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women adopted in 1979 and a huge slap in the face to Taiwan's 30-year women's movement.


Four years ago, women's groups protested outside the Democratic Progressive Party's headquarters, criticizing the Tsai administration for forming a Cabinet that was just 10 percent women. At the time, Tsai told them she would look into it. Little did the protestors know that four years later, female participation in the Cabinet would plummet even further to an all-time low. Even the Cabinet-level Gender Equality Committee is up in arms. Civic committee members question how Tsai's Cabinet can be just 2.63 percent women when women hold 42 percent of Taiwan's legislative seats and 31.81 percent of special municipality mayorships. The committee members have launched a petition.

All of the civic representatives on the committee were extremely surprised, and disappointed as well. This is nothing short of a huge slap in the face of the 30-year gender equality movement in Taiwan. (Tsai) thinks there are no qualified women in Taiwan worthy of a Cabinet position. Can we believe someone who so steadfastly believes something like this?

According to the Awakening Foundation, female participation in the Cabinet hit an all-time high of 23.4 percent under Premier Sean Chen of the Kuomintang. Female participation in the Cabinet has not been as low as it is now in over three decades, when it was 5 percent under Premier Lee Huan. The committee has passed a resolution setting a target of at least one-third representation for all genders in all government agencies.

We are very upset by this. It's like they are telling everyone the government can only be run by men and only men are capable. This will lead many citizens to think women are only suitable for low-level jobs.

The committee says it is in disbelief Taiwan's first female president would have the most male-dominant Cabinet in history and Tsai has violated the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women adopted in 1979. In contrast to Taiwan, Canada's Cabinet was 50 percent women in 2015 and Finland's was over 60 percent women in 2019. In short, Taiwan now holds the distinction of ranking dead last among the world's developed nations in female Cabinet participation.



四年前，婦女團體來到民進黨黨部樓下，抗議女性內閣閣員比例只有一成，實在過低，當時尚未正式就職的蔡總統回應，會檢討，結果四年後連任了，女性閣員比例更低。行政院性別平等委員會民間委員，連署指出，台灣女性立委佔了41.59%，女性直轄市縣市長有31.81%，結果女性閣員竟然只有2.63%，難道執政者找不到女性政治人才嗎？

行政院性平委員會民間委員 許秀雯表示：「所有的民間委員，其實是都是感到非常的驚訝，並且失望，並且認為這簡直就像是，打了過去30年的性別平等運動一個巴掌。認為說沒有合適的女性人才來任用，我們是不能夠相信，不能夠說服人的。」

婦女新知基金會，更整理歷屆內閣性別比例，指出女性最高比例在國民黨的陳沖時代，有23.4%，最低出現在三十年前李煥組閣，只有5%，但此次蘇內閣更低，簡直是史上最「男」內閣，遠遠不及、行政院性平會通過，提升公部門決策參與、任何性別不低於三分之一比例的目標。

婦女新知基金會秘書長 周于萱表示：「對我們來說是非常難過的，好像政府在告訴大家一個訊息，就是說從政可能還是以男性為主。就是有能力的人，剛好都會是男性，會讓很多人會覺得說，女性可能還是比較適合基層的工作。」

首位女總統，卻帶來史上最低女性閣員比例，政院性平會民間委員指出，這已違反聯合國四十年前通過的「消除對婦女一切形式歧視公約」，比起加拿大2015年，有50%女性閣員，芬蘭2019年超過60%，台灣的內閣性別比例，絕對是全球現代進步國家當中的末段班。