離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Center chides ministry for ignoring female reservists
President Tsai Ing-wen, center, poses for a group photograph during a visit to a military base in Tainan on Jan. 15 last year. Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
NOT ENOUGH ROOM: The Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center criticized the defense ministry and said female soldiers have been performing just as well as male ones
By Wu Su-wei and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Ministry of National Defense’s failure to require female reservists to attend educational mobilization for military reserves “violates the principle of gender equality,” a report released yesterday by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said.
The report, which focused on the government’s efforts to make better use of reserve forces over the past few years, cited the ministry as saying that although it only reached half of its annual target for the training of reserve forces this year, it had no more training capacity at present, and therefore had not called up female reservists.
The report criticized the decision to overlook female reservists, saying that performance records show that active female members of the military perform just as well as their male counterparts, and that more women have joined the military annually over the past few years.
Asked about the report during an interview, former minister of national defense Michael Tsai （蔡明憲） said that the ministry should not only consider including women in the additional training sessions, but should include provisions in the budget to allow for separate washrooms, dormitories and other facilities to accommodate the inclusion of more women in the military.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Jang Chyi-lu （張其祿） said that accommodating women in the military would not be a great expense for the government, and that the ministry must start considering female reservists when arranging training courses.
The ministry said the number of female reservists participating in performance evaluations that test their ability with firearms has increased from 20 percent to 50 percent in the past few years, and 90 percent of those participating pass their evaluations.
Commenting on the matter, Institute for National Defense and Security Research analyst Su Tzu-yun （蘇紫雲） said the number of women passing the evaluations was lower than it could be due to a lack of training and evaluation personnel.
“The defense budget must be increased, with a higher percentage of resources devoted to reservist training,” he said.
“If there were more personnel to carry out the assessment of recruits, then we would see more than 60 percent of women passing the evaluations,” he added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
