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MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2013 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside The Hunger CAMPUS Games: Catching • Georgetown University Qatar alumni club election Fire: This star unites graduates in GCC shines brightest P | 4 P | 8-9 MARKETPLACE • Meet discusses empowering emerging markets via CSR P | 6 BOOKS • Best new books that explore and discover P | 7 HEALTH • Physical fitness may be tied to slower memory decline P | 11 TECHNOLOGY • Denmark targets new generation to keep edge in hearing aids Shifting roles P | 12 A growing number of Taiwanese women are opting Learn Arabic for jobs traditionally dominated by men in the • Learn commonly coastguard, military and police as the island looks used Arabic words and their meanings to promote better gender equality. P | 13 2 PLUS | MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2013 COVER STORY Taiwanese women embrace ‘male’ careers By Amber Wang centre of overlapping territorial claims by several countries. rene Yen could have chosen to go Taiwan sent its first female officers to university like many 19-year- to the Spratlys this year. olds, but instead she opted to She serves as a coastguard with mil- swap lecture halls and libraries itary ranking. “It’s like serving on the for a bracing life as a member front line because of the tensions in the Iof the military coastguard patrolling region,” Yen said in a telephone inter- a lonely archipelago. view. “This is very meaningful to me.” Yen is among a growing number of Observers say changes in Taiwanese Taiwanese women — who make up women’s career choices are partly a about 44 percent of the workforce — reflection of improving gender equality opting for jobs traditionally dominated and, in terms of serving in the mili- by men in the coastguard, military and tary or police, partly down to economic police as the island looks to promote necessity as the allure of a steady gov- better gender equality. ernment job increases in sluggish eco- “I’ve always wanted to be a sol- nomic times. dier and I chose to go to the Spratlys “It’s difficult to find a good job in this because it was not open to women flagging economy, even for those with before,” said Yen from the oil-rich higher degrees,” said lawmaker Hsueh islands in the South China Sea where Ling from the parliament’s defence she is stationed and which are at the committee. PLUS | MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2013 3 The increasing numbers of women field performing tasks from cracking moving from traditional roles such as down on drunk drivers to serving as teachers, secretaries and nurses into a riot police. wider array of jobs also stands to ben- Concerns remain about longer-term The increasing efit a Taiwanese military that is strug- career prospects for women in tradi- gling to recruit men. tionally male-dominated lines of work. numbers of women The military, which is aiming to The military, for example, has seen phase out conscription by the end of only five female generals in its history, moving from 2016, saw 5,300 women apply for just of whom one is still in the service. 799 positions last year, whereas it met Last year, the first female skipper traditional roles just 68 percent of its quota for men of a naval ship, whose 2007 appoint- such as teachers, for its paid “volunteer” recruitment ment was highly publicised, asked to be programme. transferred to a teaching post, citing secretaries and Some female recruits, such as family reasons. 32-year-old sergeant first-class Lee A 2011 survey by the Council of nurses into a wider Tzu-yun, have given up careers in Labour Affairs showed that five per- other fields to serve in uniform. cent of female respondents felt that array of jobs also Lee was among the first batch of their gender had negatively impacted female volunteer soldiers when she their earning power, compared with 0.8 stands to benefit a quit her banking job to join the military percent of male workers. in 2007. She now works for a military Government statistics show that Taiwanese military recruitment centre in Taipei, using her Taiwanese women earn on average own experience to encourage young- about 18 percent less than Taiwanese that is struggling to sters to follow suit. men. “My family were concerned at that “There is still a lot of room for recruit men. time as they saw the military as the improved gender equality in the work- men’s world and not a choice profession place,” said Liu Chia-yi, chairwoman for women. Besides the stability offered of the Taipei Association for the by this job, I like challenges,” said Lee. Promotion of Women’s Rights. “I wanted to try a brand new field.” “The government and employers Women currently constitute 11 per- must enforce relevant regulations to cent of the military’s paid “volunteer” ensure women’s working rights,” she force, which trails behind the United said. States’ 15 percent but is higher than Some government commissions Japan’s and South Korea’s 3-4 percent, fail to abide by the law to ensure that according to its recruitment centre. women comprise one-third of their board members, while it is not uncom- Room for improvement mon for women to refrain from taking The police have also seen an increase longer maternity leave over fears for in the number of women joining in their careers, she added. recent years. Corporal Chiang Wen-chien is a From 2003 to 2012 the number of 26-year-old former ballerina who female police officers doubled to 4,084, joined the military in 2009. which constituted 6.4 percent of the “I think women will encounter some total police force, according to the barriers in any workplace because of National Police Agency. our natural physical limitations,” she And while in the past women said. mostly worked behind desks, more “We have to overcome them, work female police officers are now in the hard and be persistent.” AFP 4 PLUS | MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2013 CAMPUS Georgetown University Qatar alumni club election unites graduates across the GCC eorgetown University’s newly formed Alumni Club of the GCC recently concluded elections Gfor its executive committee, which officially sets in motion the organisation’s presence as the first ever region-wide alumni association. Both the nominations for the positions, and the voting body, were open to any Georgetown University graduates working or living in the GCC. “This executive committee will be responsible for coordinating activities of our alumni organisation, one of the most important resources for our gradu- “More than 25 percent of our club’s alumni mem- works for Booz Allen Hamilton in Qatar. James ates, allowing them to stay connected to the school, bers voted in this first round of elections, which ran for president of the alumni organisation in the and to the wonderful people they meet during the means we’re already starting out with a high level recent election, which resulted in a tie. He is now transformative university years of their lives,” said of participation that is sure to increase over time,” co-president, sharing the position with GU-Q alum Charles Nailen, Alumni Relations Manager, GU-Q, said Charles, who organised the voting process Basil Mahfouz. and the main organiser of the club’s launch. online to insure that members living throughout International Alumni Weekend event is scheduled “It also allows alumni to take advantage of lifelong the region could participate. “Currently, we have 400 for December 5-8, where Georgetown alumni and learning resources, career services support, and net- club members, of which about 150 graduated here, international club leaders from around the world working opportunities, wherever they are on their from Georgetown’s Education City campus.” will converge on Doha, the first time the separate career path.” The newly elected executive committee has already groups meet at such an event, to share experiences Unlike the traditional alumni groups that serve the met for their first meeting, recently. “When I arrived and strengthen their alumni community. All of the student needs of their city or country, the Alumni in Doha I was heartened to learn Georgetown had a Alumni Club of the GCC programmes are organ- Club of the GCC has a far broader reach, represent- campus in the city,” said James Faulkner, who gradu- ised out of GU-Q’s Office of Outreach and Business ing several countries and graduates from both the ated from the Washington campus of Georgetown’s Development. Washington and Doha campuses. School of Foreign Service in 2000, and currently The Peninsula DPS-MIS athletes won many medals in the CBSE Qatar Cluster Athletic Meet in MES School recently. Shuraj Nagaraj won the gold medal in 100m and long jump (U-16) and Bhargavi Ravishankar secured the gold medal in 800m (U-14). In under-19 category, Timothy Thomas and Sourav Prasad won the bronze medal in 800m and javelin throw, respectively. Fathima Ayub won the bronze medal in under- 16 800m and Shuraj Nagaraj, Srijit Basu, Ayush Saxena and Koustav Bhattacharyya secured the bronze medal in 4x100m relay. In under-14, Faizaan Javed won the bronze medal in shot put. Seen in the picture are athletes with the school principal and their coaches. Bhavan’s Public School hosted CBSE cluster inter-school hockey competition with support from Qatar Hockey Federation at Al Rayan stadium recently. V L Balasubramanian, Principal, BhPS, inaugurated the tournament. Shanmugam, Chief coach, QHF, and his team facilitated the technical aspect of the tournament. QHF announced that it will provide free coaching at Al Rayyan stadium for interested students.

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