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News Desk

The China Post

Publication Date : 08-03-2013

The socioeconomic status of Taiwan's women improved for the fifth straight year in 2013, with its advancement index rising to 64.7 from 58.8 in 2008 to rank first in the Greater China region, higher than Hong Kong's 63.3 and China's 61.5, according to the latest advancement index released yesterday by MasterCard Inc.

The report, published on the eve of International Women's Day, saw Taiwan rank fifth out of 14 Asia-Pacific economies, trumping South Korea and Japan at 49.7 and 48.1, respectively.

Overall, New Zealand ranked first among the 14 Asia-Pacific economic entities with an advancement score of 77.8, followed by Australia with 76.0 and the Philippines with 70.5, Singapore (67.5) and Taiwan (64.7). At the other end of spectrum, India (38.0), Japan (48.1) and South Korea (49.7) had index scores indicating that much more can be done to achieve gender parity.

The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women's Advancement measures the socioeconomic standing of women across the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The index is comprised of three main indicators which are derived from additional subindicators: Employment (Workforce Participation, Regular Employment), Education (Secondary Education, Tertiary Education) and Leadership (Business Owners, Business Leaders, Political Leaders). Each indicator measures the ratio of women to every 100 men in each of the economies covered by the research.

A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favour of males, a score above 100 indicates inequality in favour of females, and 100 means equality between the sexes.

The survey found that women in Taiwan are better represented than men in terms of regular employment opportunities, scoring 107 to rank fourth in the Asia-Pacific area. They also outperformed males in tertiary education with 107.1, earning eighth place.

In terms of the overall employment situation, women in Taiwan scored 89.3 points to rank third in the Asia-Pacific, and they scored 89.9 to rank seventh in overall education status.

Worth mentioning is that Taiwan ranked sixth in the Asia-Pacific in the leadership index, with the score of 30.7, but it ranked high at second in government leadership, with a score of 43.4, second only to New Zealand's 47.6.