Who speaks for sustainability transformation: Gendered visibility at Taiwan’s sustainability forums

John Chung-En Liu and Genet Yan Hang Yu

PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 2026, vol. 5, issue 9, 1-10

Abstract: Gender scholarship has shown that climate governance is deeply shaped by social inequalities in voice, authority, and participation. Building on this insight, we examine sustainability conferences as key arenas where climate expertise is publicly staged and legitimised. We treat speaker composition at sustainability forums as a diagnostic indicator of how climate governance allocates visibility and authority. Using an original dataset of 976 speaker appearances across 61 conferences held in Taiwan between July and December 2024, we examine gender representation by speaking role, organiser type, and thematic focus. Women accounted for only 25.9% of speakers overall, with particularly low representation in climate and energy transition sessions (15.9%). Female visibility was higher in government-organised events and equity-focused sessions but remained limited across all categories. These findings reveal a persistent gendered division of expertise within Taiwan’s climate governance landscape. We argue that speaker composition offers a useful diagnostic indicator of how visibility and public recognition are distributed in sustainability governance arenas. The analysis illustrates how gender-composition mapping can be used to assess inclusivity in hybrid governance arenas beyond formal institutions.Author summary: Sustainability transformation is shaped not only through laws and policies, but also through public events such as forums, conferences, and business summits. These events bring together experts, officials, and corporate leaders, and play an important role in shaping how climate issues are discussed and understood. In this study, we ask a simple question: who gets to speak at these events? We analyse the gender composition of speakers at major sustainability forums held in Taiwan over a six-month period. By examining who appears on stage—as keynote speakers, panelists, and moderators—we find that men dominate most events, particularly those focused on energy and climate transition. Women are more visible in sessions framed around social or gender-related topics, and less visible in areas associated with technical or economic authority. We treat speaker composition as an indicator of how sustainability governance allocates visibility and public recognition. Although our analysis focuses on Taiwan, similar forums play a central role in climate governance worldwide. Our findings suggest that paying attention to who speaks at key events offers a practical way to assess inclusion and exclusion in sustainability decision-making.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pstr00:0000293

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000293

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