It's not lack of talent holding women back
I commend Emily Lau Wai-hing for her enlightening article on female political representation in Hong Kong ('Hong Kong inches along the road to gender equality in public life', December 10).
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Asia lags behind Europe, the Americas and the Nordic countries in this regard, but ahead of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific and Arab countries.
It is disappointing that the government has not implemented its own policies, using the excuse that it 'had difficulty finding women to appoint to the boards and committees'.
There is, in fact, a plethora of talented and qualified women in every sector in Hong Kong.
They may not be in the networks of those making the appointments, but this is an easy hurdle to overcome, with a small amount of effort.
Twenty-five years ago, when I was living in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the US, a similar situation existed. I was part of an initiative, called the Women's Appointment Collaboration, which reached out to the many educated, qualified women in the city to gather their CVs in one data bank (in those days, these were hard copies).