The GEC report also highlighted the way gender stereotypes, such as the notion that men should study the sciences while women study the arts, can have long-lasting effects on gender segregation in the workplace.
I wonder about this. Over the last ten years or so, I have been mostly teaching students for the college entrance exam essay. They go mostly to national academic high schools, which are segregated by sex. I noticed girls and boys seem about equally divided when it comes to studying the sciences (they have to choose between arts and science tracks in Grade 11). Most don’t report any familial pressure to consider arts- I wonder if that is because sciences have traditionally paid more, and families encourage girls as well as boys to go for the high-paying jobs?
There is nothing wrong with this self-assessment. The metrics of the UN gender inequality index are maternal mortality rate (a bit high but the number is so low that most developed countries are all within the margin of error … except the US), adolescent birth rate (much lower than most Western countries), proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (much higher than most Western countries), population with secondary education (probably normal), and labour force participation rate for women (normal).
When there’s no particular weak link you would end up on the top of the list.
I’m not questioning Taiwan’s achievements in this area, which are considerable (especially for Asia), but the self-assessment thing comes off as a little too 自我感覺良好.
They self-assess because every single country is included but Taiwan. It’s the same with human development index. They self-assess that one every year too.
Yeah, I get that, but it just smacks a little of desperation. Not that there’s anything wrong with blowing your own horn, so to speak. Instead of looking desperate to be made part of some UN list, I think Taiwan would be better off just talking about its accomplishments.
Taiwan has been #1 in Asia for several years in a row, by objective metrics. Global rankings have been top ten, consistently. Much of this based on OECD objective stats.