Women in Taiwan are highly engaged in starting businesses, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs Aug. 15. (Courtesy of MOEA)
 

Taiwan ranks seventh globally based on the same assessment methodology used to compile the most recent U.N. Gender Inequality Index published by the U.N. Development Programme, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs Aug. 15.

Scoring 0.036 out of 1, with a higher value indicating greater inequality, Taiwan trailed countries such as Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden. Fellow Asian countries Singapore, South Korea and Japan finished eighth, 16th and 23rd, respectively.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs said its statistics show that women accounted for 37 percent of all business owners in Taiwan in 2021, beating South Korea by two-tenths of a percent. In the same year, the proportion of small- and medium-sized enterprises headed by women hit 37.2 percent, which is nearly twice Japan’s 17.4 percent. The MOEA added that the numbers both rose since 2020.

Regarding the distribution of male and female employees, women made up 44.7 percent of Taiwan’s workforce in 2022, up from 44.2 percent in 2013 due to industrial restructuring and more opportunities for women to receive higher levels of education, the MOEA said. The ministry added that the gap between men’s and women’s share of the labor pool has shrunk to 10.6 percentage points in 2022 from 11.6 percentage points in 2013.
 
According to the MOEA, women’s participation in the manufacturing and the wholesale and retail sectors, which have the top two largest employee populations in the country, has also increased since 2013. Taiwan’s female workers account for 38.3 percent in manufacturing fields in 2022, while the percentage of women in wholesale and retail jobs reached 52.1 percent last year, a rise from 51.7 percent in 2013, the ministry said. (YCH-E)