The Role of Marie Curie (Sex and Gender in Taiwan Part II)

2020/02/07 

Yenlin Ku to the NAER

Attached are the minutes of the meeting organized by the Executive Yuan on the translation of sex and gender. It arrived yesterday. Regrettably the NAER Bilingual Committee's suggested translation of "Members of each sex shall constitute no less than one-third of the membership of the committee/commission." was not adopted. During the discussion, one mentioned that this committee was openly opposed to the change of the  name from 居理夫人 to 瑪麗居理 two years ago, indicating that its members were gender insensitive. Another said that the Third CEDAW International Review Committee was unaware of the progressiveness of gender agenda in Taiwan and therefore prejudiced. 

This process reflects the absence of open and fair discussion on the issues of sex and gender in Taiwan. It is exactly what the CEDAW committee insightfully pointed out but the government failed to realize after spending so much budget and human power in organizing the meetings.

But I am still grateful for the efforts you and the NAER Bilingual Committee have made. We all have tried to make contributions to our society. 

Thank you,

yenlin