Taiwan has announced that it will allow women into its military reserve force training due to the pressure mounted by the Chinese military.
The defense ministry allowed the enrollment of about 200 discharged soldiers into voluntary reservist training for the first time to support the nation’s forces.
“This is the first year to include women in the reservist’s training so this year will be a trial program, we will plan the training capacities according to the number of applicants.”
Major General Yu Wen-cheng of the ministry’s All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency said, according to Agence France-Presse.
According to him, the move will be on a trial basis for the remaining part of the year. It is also known that the Taiwanese Defense Ministry has earlier reported that it will only train male reservists due to their insufficient capacity to enroll all genders.
However, some Taiwanese lawmakers had insisted that the exclusion of women from the reserve training resulted in gender discrimination.
Taiwan has been living under continuous fear of invasion as Beijing continues to claim Taipei as part of its territory.
And due to the increasing threat from the Chinese military to forcefully take over the self-supported island, many military analysts have urged the Taiwanese government to take additional measures to prepare civilians and more especially women to help bolster their military forces.
As of 2021, women made up about 15% of Taiwan’s military but rarely serve in combat roles.
In December 2022, Taiwan announced that it will extend the four-month mandatory military service to a year starting in 2024 and that the requirement will apply to only the male gender born after 2005.
Taiwan’s military force is made up of about 170,000 personnel with the major part of that population being volunteers. Also, they are training about 120,000 reservists yearly.
Males between the ages of 18 and 36 are mandated to volunteer to serve in the military or carry out a period of compulsory service in the reserves.
The scenario between Russia and Ukraine has also intensified worries in the East Asian Islands.
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