Not only does helping women to improve their economic circumstances benefit families, regional economies and the national economy as a whole, it also constitutes a direct, immediate way of overcoming the problem of poverty. For this reason, international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, along with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), have all been aggressively promoting women’s entrepreneurial activity. In Taiwan, with the emergence of a more open society and the development of the knowledge economy, women have come to account for an increasingly large percentage of entrepreneurs. Of all the new enterprises that were established in 2003, 37.57% had a woman as the “responsible person” (chairperson or business owner), higher than almost any other country in the world. In 1978, women accounted for just 10.15% of business owners and 15.79% of the self-employed; by 2003 these figures had risen to 15.14% and 22.00% respectively. As women come to account for a higher percentage of Taiwan’s entrepreneurs, the importance of female entrepreneurs within the economic system is increasing. In 2003 there were 1,164,121 natural persons heading business enterprises in Taiwan, of which 394,245 (33.87% of the total) were women. By comparison, in 2002 women accounted for 46% of the owners of unlisted companies in the US; the figure for mainland China was only around 12.6%. The combined operating revenue of businesses run by women in Taiwan is NT$3,287 billion, or 13.07% of the combined operating revenue of all enterprises in Taiwan. As of 2003 there were 409,180 female business owners in Taiwan, accounting for 20.66% of the total number of business owners (1.98 million). Of these 409,180, 81,880 were employers and 327,300 were self-employed. Women accounted for 16.50% of all employers and 22.05% of the self-employe
