Due to higher female participation in politics, Taiwan has the second highest gender equality ranking in the world, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS, 行政院主計處) announced yesterday.

The DGBAS applied the criteria used in the United Nations' Gender Inequality Index (GII) and concluded that Taiwan has the second best score in the world. The main reason cited for the impressive result is that there are many female politicians in Taiwan.

Among the 187 countries surveyed, there is least gender inequality in the Netherlands, which has twice ranked in the top spot since 2008. Northern European countries tend to have greater gender equality, according to the U.N. report.

Since Taiwan is not a member of the U.N. it is not ranked in the GII. Using the criteria used in the index, the DGBAS calculated Taiwan's score in 2012.

According to the DGBAS, the Netherlands topped the chart in 2012 in terms of least gender inequality, while Taiwan took second place, Sweden third, Switzerland and Denmark tied for fourth, and Norway fifth.

The U.N. has compiled the GII since 2008. Factors taken into consideration include maternal mortality rate, adolescent fertility rate, higher education attainment levels, the share of parliamentary seats held by each sex and women's participation in the workforce.

The Netherlands and Sweden score higher than Taiwan in terms of parliamentary seats held by women, and higher education attained by women. However, Sweden's adolescent fertility rate was 6.5 percent, higher than Taiwan's 4 percent, according to the DGBAS. The adolescent fertility rate is considered to be related to future generations' education and employment opportunities. Therefore, a lower adolescent fertility rate is preferred in the ranking.

Taiwan's ranking is noticeably better than both Japan and South Korea, the rankings of which are 22 and 28 respectively. Taiwan leads both countries in terms of female participation in politics, according to the DGBAS. Nearly 34 percent of the parliamentary seats are held by women in Taiwan, while the figure is 13.4 percent in Japan and 15.7 percent in South Korea. It was 37.8 percent in the Netherlands and 44.7 percent in Sweden.

In regard to the DGBAS report, Awakening Foundation Secretary General Shih-fang Lin (林實芳) said yesterday that government officials should not be “too complacent” regarding the high ranking, since there is still much room for improvement in gender equality.

Lin said that while women held 33.9 percent of parliamentary seats in Taiwan, which is higher than Asian countries including China, Japan and South Korea, the percentage is normally 50 percent in Western countries.

In addition, only one-seventh of officers at the Executive Yuan are women, which is much lower than in many countries. Women's earnings are also 20 percent lower than men's, Lin added.