Exploring the gender gap in marine affairs in Taiwan

The United Nations has set "Empowering Women in the Maritime Community" as the theme of World Maritime Day 2019, which specifically combines the subjects of gender equality and ocean protection, and emphasizes the need to increase opportunities of exploring the gender issue in the relationship between humans and the ocean. In order to enable diverse gender groups to equally participate in maritime affairs and to achieve substantive gender equality, the research targets to improve the low proportion of single-sex participation in maritime affairs through conducting survey and analysis on the gender statistics from three major sectors of government, education, and industry. Furthermore, the experts’ opinions and suggestions were also added to the gender statistics when the researchers explored the actual gender equality situation in Taiwan's ocean affairs. The results of this research show that ocean affairs still do not deviate from traditional workplace stereotypes, and the maritime industry is still a male-dominated workplace. In recent years, with the vigorous advocacy of the government and the private sector, and the establishment of related laws and welfare measures, the proportion of women engaged in marine affairs has gradually increased. However, this field of marine affairs still has both gender level and vertical isolation. Based on the recommendations of experts and scholars, secondary data analysis, and survey statistics, this study integrates future policy research and recommendations for further research methods to urge the government and private organizations to establish a more complete mechanism for the cultivation of marine affairs talents and personnel recruitment.