Yenlin Ku 2022/11/24
(retired
and working professor of women and gender studies, former and present member of
government gender equality committees, former chair of Awakening Foundation,
etc.)
I’m the “gender expert holding
different opinions” in the 2021 meeting the Department of Gender Equality (DGE)
referred to in its response to the issue of translation of sex and gender
between Chinese and English. In that meeting I submitted the suggestions made
by the Bi-lingual Translation Committee of the National Academy for Educational
Research (NAER) at my formal request. Unfortunately, the suggestions were
turned down in favor of the original decisions made by the DGE and its experts.
Here are my standpoints:
1. The 3rd CEDAW IRC
(International Review Committee)’s concern
that “the inappropriate conceptual and practical use of the terms ‘sex‘
and ‘gender‘ in Taiwan” does exist and has caused confusion and damage to the
government, society and education.
2. I support the IRC’s suggestion that “The term’sex’
refers to biological differences between men and women. The term ’gender’
refers to socially constructed identities, attributes and roles for women and
men and society’s social and cultural meaning for these biological differences
resulting in hierarchical relationships between women and men and in
the distribution of power and rights favoring men and disadvantaging women.＂
3. I believe the IRC’s recommendation
that “the Government to align all the legislative texts and policy documents
and promote the correct and consistent understanding of the terms ‘sex’ and
‘gender’ in line with CEDAW Convention and the Committee’s General
Recommendation No. 28.” is urgently needed in Taiwan today.
4. Underneath is a chart combined of translations made by the DGE and the NAER for the sake of comparison:
|
NO. |
Chinese |
DGE’s translation |
NAER’s translation |
|
1 |
性別 |
Gender |
gender (psychological/social) sex (biological) |
|
2 |
性傾向 |
Sexual orientation |
sexual orientation |
|
3 |
性侵害 |
Sexual assault |
sexual assault |
|
4 |
性騷擾 |
Sexual harassment |
sexual harassment |
|
5 |
性霸凌 |
Sexual bullying |
sexual bullying |
|
6 |
性別認同 |
Gender identity |
gender identity |
|
7 |
性別特質 |
Gender traits |
Sex trait(s)/ characteristic(s) (physical) Gender trait(s) / characteristic(s) (心理) |
|
8 |
性別歧視 |
Gender discrimination |
sex-based discrimination; sex discrimination;
gender-based discrimination; gender
discrimination |
|
9 |
任一性別[1]人數(代表)不得少於三分之一 |
Neither gender should occupy less than
one-third of the seats of the committee/commission |
Members of each sex shall constitute no less
than one-third of the membership of the committee/commission. |
Terminology and Translation
30. The Review Committee expresses its concern that confusion is created by the incorrect translations of certain terms from English to Chinese and Chinese to English, such as equality and gender diversity. In particular, the Committee is concerned that the Chinese term ‘平等’ is translated as both equality and equity, as shown in the Gender Equality Employment Act and the Gender Equity Education Act. Also, the Committee is concerned that gender diversity is translated as ‘multiple sex’, which is not correctly conveying the meaning of diverse gender.
31. The Committee recommends that the Government solve this problem by only using the term ‘equality’, changing the English title of the Gender Equity Education Act by replacing ‘equity’ with ‘equality’ and applying the correct translation for gender diversity and other terminology involving gender. The Committee recommends that the correct terms and their meanings are commonly understood by government agencies, media and the general public.
Review of the Third Reports of the Government of Taiwan on the Implementation of the International Human Rights Covenants
Concluding Observations and Recommendations adopted by the International Review Committee
ICESCR｜經濟社會文化權利國際公約
ICCPR｜公民與政治權利國際公約
Taipei, 13 May 2022
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