May is the month to celebrate mothers and express gratitude to them for bringing us into this world. It is an opportunity to think about the difficulties confronted by career women and working mothers.
Most mothers have to juggle raising children with the challenges of the workplace. Government statistics show that the female labor force participation rate from 2007 to 2017 was about 50 percent, increasing slightly to 51.5 percent in 2021.
Although these numbers indicate that conventional gender roles have changed, the female labor force participation rate in Taiwan is still much lower than in other countries in the region. The male labor force participation rate in Taiwan has remained about 67 percent for years.
Over the past two decades, the gap between the two rates has decreased — the female rate was only 44 percent in June 2000 — but it is undeniable that the gap continues to exist, and more work needs to be done on gender equality in the workplace.
Society is still based on traditional gender roles, and Taiwan has not fully utilized its workforce in a proper way.
To understand the challenges faced by career women, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) show that in the 1990s, 80 percent of working mothers were responsible for taking care of children by themselves.
In recent years, the number has dropped to 50 percent, indicating that women are no longer the sole caregiver of children. Supposedly, they should be able to resume their careers faster than before.
However, statistics also show that it takes longer for working mothers to return to work after giving birth. In 1979, married women aged 15 to 64 who left jobs due to pregnancy or childbirth took 40 months to return to their place of work.
In recent years, the number has risen to about 70 months, and in 2006, to 80.24 months. The data imply that women are required to spend more time at home after childbirth. It is perhaps because when a career woman becomes a working mother, she has to adjust herself to multitasking at home and in her workplace.
Whether there are issues that keep women away from careers for longer than before must be considered.
Working mothers are still expected to be the caregivers of children, and pregnant women are usually discriminated against in the workplace. In the past, employers often imposed a “no-pregnancy rule” on women, who would have to quit their jobs if they became pregnant.
Today, as society pays more attention to gender equality and there are laws to regulate such discriminatory behavior, the situation has changed and pregnant women’s rights in the workplace are better protected.
The Taipei Department of Labor said that among appeals from 2015 to 2017, 90 cases were about discrimination against pregnancy, which was 36 percent of all appeals related to gender equality issues.
There must have been a lot more similar cases that were not put forward due to factors related to career development, litigation costs and other reasons.
Discrimination against pregnant women still exists, and it could be practiced in other forms. Pregnant women are still treated unfairly, but straightforward discrimination has changed into more subtle action, such as lawful dismissal and demotion.
Such cases lead to a hard situation in terms of practical judgement and research, and preparation is needed for the new challenges.
Lee Cheng-lin is a graduate student in National Taipei University’s Department of Law.
Translated by Emma Liu
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