If comments left on Facebook are any indication, Taiwanese women are dissatisfied with how far women’s rights have advanced in today’s society, a women’s organization said yesterday ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday.
“Although Taiwan has been making legislative progress in protecting women’s rights over the past few years, the government has refused to promote gender equality as an important social value,” said Yang Wan-ying (楊婉瑩), chairwoman of the Awakening Foundation.
She said, for example, that officials did not fully consider women’s needs when they decided to boost the declining birthrate by giving out cash for childbirth.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“What women really want is a high-quality public daycare system,” she said at a press conference.
“We are not vending machines into which you throw some coins in return for a baby,” wrote one Internet user, ridiculing the government’s plan.
Fan Yun (范雲), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Sociology, added that although women are allowed up to six months of -maternity leave according to the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別工作平等法), it is not uncommon for private employers to simply fire female workers who are pregnant and who apply for leave.
A visiting female academic from Beijing also shared her disappointment over gender stereotyping at the press conference, even among educated individuals.
“My best friend said that I abandoned my family in China just to have fun for myself, but I came here for research, just as my husband does when he visits the United States,” she said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
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