The Gender Equity Education Committee of Tamkang University held a Gender Mainstreaming Lecture, titled "Recent Trends in Gender Mainstreaming in the International Community," at 12:00 noon on June 23 in HC305 of the Hsu Shou-Chlien International Conference Center. Professor Der-Lan Yeh, Director of the Center for Population and Gender Studies at National Taiwan University and Principal Investigator of the Ministry of Education's Phase I Higher Education Gender Mainstreaming Guidance Project, was invited to deliver the keynote address. Her lecture examined the latest international developments in gender mainstreaming and explored how these concepts can be translated into systematic, methodology-based implementation strategies within higher education. The event was attended by President Huan-Chao Keh, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Hui-Huang Hsu, Executive Vice President for Administrative Affairs Chun-Hung Lin, and senior University administrators.
Opening the event, Yu-Pei Ma, Secretary-General of Tamkang University and Executive Secretary of the Gender Equity Education Committee, noted that the University has participated in the Ministry of Education's Gender Mainstreaming Resource Center Project for three consecutive years. This year, Tamkang officially entered the first phase of the guidance program, and its progress has attracted considerable attention from the 13 Universities of ELECT and higher education institutions across Taiwan.
During her presentation, Professor Yeh reviewed recent policy developments from the UN, EU, and OECD. She explained that gender mainstreaming has entered what may be described as "Version 2.0," shifting its focus from the traditional concept of equality between women and men to a more inclusive framework that emphasizes gender diversity and intersectionality. This updated approach also formally incorporates LGBTI perspectives, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex individuals, into international policy frameworks.
Professor Yeh further discussed the concept of transformative equality, emphasizing that it goes beyond conventional notions of equal opportunity by addressing structural barriers that perpetuate inequality. She cited the whole-of-institution approach promoted by both the United Nations and the European Union, under which an organization's senior leadership is expected to make a public commitment to gender equality and take the lead in implementing institutional reforms.
She also distinguished gender mainstreaming from traditional gender equity education, explaining that gender mainstreaming is driven by statistical evidence and data analysis rather than solely by rights-based advocacy, making it applicable across a much broader range of public policies. Referring to the 2024 United Nations Pact for the Future, she noted that eliminating gender stereotypes has become an essential component of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Concluding her lecture, Professor Yeh encouraged participants with the message, "Tomorrow is Now," emphasizing that "If you want a better tomorrow, look at what you are doing today." She remarked that Taiwan's approach to promoting gender equality and gender mainstreaming successfully integrates international standards with local characteristics, and she encouraged everyone to continue working together to advance gender mainstreaming.
During the discussion session, Tzung-Ju Tsai, Dean of Academic Affairs, raised a thought-provoking question based on observations from higher education. He noted that, at Tamkang University, where the humanities and social sciences are particularly strong, female students often outperform their male counterparts academically and receive a higher proportion of scholarships. He therefore asked whether policies should reserve opportunities for male students in the pursuit of equality. In response, Professor Yeh explained that, under the international human rights framework, universities may adopt temporary special measures to provide time-limited support for underrepresented or disadvantaged genders in specific disciplines. Such measures, she noted, can promote substantive equality flexibly without requiring permanent revisions to institutional regulations.
