Senior roles remain limited for women though the gender split is almost equal at the junior level
Flexible work and unconscious bias training are the two leading initiatives to champion gender balance for Taiwan-based lawyers, according to the “50:50 by 2030: A longitudinal study into gender disparity in law – Taiwan Results Report” released by the International Bar Association Legal Policy & Research Unit.
While the gender split is about equal at the junior level, senior roles in law firms remain limited for women in the profession, the report showed. Similar findings were observed in the judiciary and in the public sector; most senior judges in Taiwan’s district courts and Supreme Court are male, although the IBA noted that overall, the judiciary was moving towards parity. Most senior prosecutors were male as well, although parity was within reach at the junior level.
The gender parity trend in Taiwan’s judiciary aligned with that observed in 11 other jurisdictions.
“In Taiwan, the number of female legal professionals is roughly equivalent to that of males, indicating that we have no shortage of emerging female legal professionals. However, we cannot deny that compared to men, women face more challenges in career development,” said Taiwan Bar Association President Chih-peng Chang and executive director Yuan-Yao Chung in the report’s foreword.
They noted that gender-friendly workplace policies were linked to factors like career development.
“Research from various countries shows that employment ratios, salaries and benefits, and career development among genders are closely related to gender-friendly policies in the workplace,” Chang and Chung said. “Therefore, we hope to gain a preliminary understanding of gender equality in Taiwan's legal profession by analysing the gender ratio at various stages of legal professionals' careers and the implementation of gender-friendly policies in the workplace.”
Flexible work was also favorable in other jurisdictions, but unconscious bias training was not, the study indicated.
“The 50:50 by 2030: A longitudinal study into gender disparity in law – Taiwan Results Report” is the 12th country-specific report drawing from the IBA’s examination of gender disparity in law. The Taipei Bar Association helped the IBA with the study after a survey was conducted last year.
