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TAIWAN'S 1ST ALL-WOMEN ARMY UNIT TO MAKE DEBUT

ROC Central News Agency

2007-01-22 12:14:12

    Taipei, Jan. 22 (CNA) Thanks to the military's faithful implementation of a gender equality policy, the Army has managed to form an all-women company that will undertake support missions in electronic warfare, military sources said Monday.

    According to the sources, the special Army unit is composed of more than 100 women officers, non-commissioned officers and rank-and-file members.

    The unit has been trained in electronic warfare skills and relevant job specialties, the sources said, adding that the all-women Army company will be entrusted with important missions in the Han Kwang No. 23 combined services exercise to be held later this year.

    The military is expected to introduce the all-women Army company to the press Tuesday for the first time, the sources said.

    Military analysts said the organization of an all-women Army unit became possible only after the military began to recruit volunteer women soldiers over the past couple of years.

    With more women interested in pursuing a military career, the sources said, the military has continued to raise the percentage of women volunteer soldiers. Nearly 1,000 volunteer women soldiers have joined the military ranks so far, and the military is planning to recruit an additional 3,000 this year, the sources said.

    Besides the increase in the number of volunteer female soldiers, the sources said, women have also been playing an increasingly important role in the country's armed forces.

    Army Col. Ting Liang-chien, 45, was the latest to join the expanding rank of female officers who have taken up leadership posts in various military units, including "front line" combat units.

    Ting, a mother of two young children, was promoted to political warfare chief of the Army's No. 601 airborne cavalry brigade last November, making her the country's first women officer ever to assume a management position in a combat unit.

    In the Army tradition, the post is an important stepping stone toward the rank of major general. Military authorities reportedly expect Ting to become the country's first female general from a combat unit in the future.

    The military now has two female major generals -- Pan Ai-chu, 51, dean of education at the National Defense University's Political Warfare College, and Tsai Hui-chen, 51, director of the Ministry of National Defense's Communications and Electronics Department. But neither of them had ever served in a combat unit.

(By Sofia Wu)

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