CPC has always directed attention to female empowerment and protection of women's rights in the workplace. In addition to having women assume the position of first mate in part of the fleet, CPC also encourages the crew to take promotion exams and obtain the caption certificate. One female first mate has completed the probation procedures for captain, and will be assigned as such after passing evaluation.

Furthermore, approximately 15% of CPC's oil tankers have female crew onboard to serve the roles of engineer, officer, first mate, and captain. This percentage far exceeds the industry norm, and all of whom have delivered excellent work performance.

In addition to having females on the CPC fleet, CPC holds the belief that women are just as capable as men in terms of skills and potentials, and therefore deserve fair opportunities and treatment. A series of female empowerment programs have thus been put in motion to provide more training and promotion opportunities, introduce gender equality education, and to create a more open and inclusive corporate culture.

The current state of gender equality in shipping service

Shipping is such a tough profession to master that females make up very little percentage of the crew. Although shipping companies do hire female officers, "the profession has been dominated by males in the last several decades, as most people still had great concern about females working on ships." The 2019 amendments of the Shipping Act specifically prohibit any restriction to be imposed on the seafaring profession due to gender, thereby entitling female captains to the same licensing and eligibility requirements as male captains, and equal opportunities to be promoted captain. However, according to the statistics published by the Institute of Transportation, Ministry of Transportation and Communication, only 3.5% out of more than 87,000 ship crews in all of Taiwan were female at the end of 2021.

The rise of female captain

Taiwan depends heavily on maritime transport for oil and gas supply. All crude oil that CPC imports into Taiwan will have to be refined in a refinery before it is shipped using CPC's own fleet to major ports in Taichung, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Keelung, and Hualien, where the oil is unloaded to onshore oil tanks. The CPC fleet is entrusted with the task of transporting oil throughout the island, and one of the outstanding seafarers who stood up to shoulder the responsibility was Chia-Ling Lin, CPC's first female captain. Chia-Ling Lin said that her request to work on a ship had been rejected multiple times due to concerns regarding physical capacity and complications of sharing space between different genders. Eventually, she got an internship opportunity onboard, which allowed her to progress through her seafaring career all the way to captain. Being able to lead her crew to complete the assigned tasks safely is what Chia-Ling considers to be the greatest accomplishment. She had dreamed of "sailing around the world in smart sailor suit" as a child, and therefore considers seafaring her dream career.

Return to the safe harbor

Yu-Chun Lin's connection with the CPC fleet began in the junior year of her university study, when she was offered an internship opportunity onboard DAR YUN. After joining the CPC fleet, she worked her way up from junior third mate/sailor, third mate, second mate to first mate, and her jobs started from as simple as removing rust and painting the deck to safety duty, cruising duty, maintenance of fire safety equipment, charting, mapping, and cargo loading. Being the first mate, Yu-Chun Lin is in charge of everything that happens above the deck, from fire safety, daily supplies, food quality to clogged toilets. A first mate's duty lies beyond the oil cargo, and includes internal affairs and coordinations within the ship.

In a dry-dock repair, the first mate has to work with a ship inspector to take measurement of steel panels before proceeding with oil tank wash, vapor removal, and ballast adjustment. Until the ship is back into service, the first mate has to constantly ensure that safety precautions are taken and that works are carried out safely without delay. As a female first mate, Yu-Chun Lin has proven herself capable of leading male crew members in dock repair while ensuring their safety, and able to withstand the toughest sea conditions as well as doubts from crew members regarding the physical capacities of a woman.

The seafaring career gave Yu-Chun Lin a strong sense of accomplishment, whether in terms of compensation or challenges. After starting a family, she begins to treasure the little time she has to stroll through the park with her husband and child during weekends, and tries to make up for the lost time she spends at sea. Fortunately, Yu-Chun Lin was offered the opportunity to work as CPC's port officer, a position where she gets to apply her seafaring experience onshore in tasks such as fleet safety management and internal audit of oil tankers, and be with her family after work. Whenever she misses the smell and breeze of the sea, she simples takes the opportunity of a safety inspection and hops onboard.