As Taiwan joined the world in marking International Women’s Day yesterday, the spotlight was on the progress the nation has made in its pursuit of gender equality. However, many women still face significant challenges in their day-to-day lives, despite laws enacted to stamp out discrimination in schools and workplaces.
“The contemporary progress we observe has largely been propelled by women themselves, not because of systems or policies that sufficiently supported them,” Awakening Foundation secretary-general Chyn Yu-rung (覃玉蓉) said in a recent interview.
“And many women continue to be caught between work and family responsibilities,” Chyn said, adding that they are often left to navigate these challenges alone.
Photo copied by Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
Chen Yi-ting (陳怡婷), a nurse at Taipei’s Tri-Service General Hospital, resumed her role as a nurse in November last year after taking two years of parental leave.
Having worked as a nurse for almost seven years, Chen said she became pregnant unexpectedly six months after she and her husband tied the knot.
She went on leave just before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
“I think women are affected by childbirth more than men, no matter the situation,” Chen said in an interview.
“I’m lucky that my husband is a great ‘teammate,’ but I know many of my coworkers lack a support network and have been forced to make compromises, like working in clinics instead of medical centers so they have more time to look after their children,” she said.
Chen said that because she alternates between day and night shifts, her husband had to find a job with more stable hours so they could give their two-year-old son the care he needs.
“My husband and I work pretty well together, and the caring responsibilities do not just fall on one of us,” she said.
In many aspects of life, particularly in the workplace, stereotyping and discrimination hit women before having a baby is even on the cards.
“I was asked during an interview how I would balance work and family if I were to get married,” said Su Chin-ya (蘇靖雅), a 25-year-old engineer. “But a household should be taken care of by both partners; it’s not solely the responsibility of women to do so.”
Su now works as a research-and-development engineer at a high-tech company in Hsinchu, after studying for a master’s in engineering and interning at a research institute in Belgium.
Although Su and her female colleagues are competent and professional, they still encounter barriers because they are women.
“My supervisor once asked my female colleague and I not to take parental leave at the same time, because that would be an inconvenience to the company,” Su said.
“But that’s my private life, you cannot determine how it will play out,” Su said, adding that at that time, neither she nor her colleague were married, let alone thinking of having children.
She said that she was teased by her male colleagues when she took menstrual leave, and often felt pressure to dress in a certain way, which was very different to when she lived in Belgium.
Nan, who is in her 30s, works as a software engineer in the US.
Based on her experiences studying and working in Taiwan and the US for more than 15 years, she agreed that all things related to marriage and children “significantly affect women in the field.”
“They might have to temporarily leave their jobs due to family responsibilities,” Nan said. “While some may say it is acceptable for women to take a career break, the acceptance, or lack of it, they receive upon their return can be a challenge.”
She added that women often face dilemmas due to their age.
“By the time they are ready to advance their careers, they might also be pregnant, which can be challenging,” she said.
“Women are often expected to take on more caring responsibilities and face more obstacles because of outdated assumptions around gender roles,” Chyn said, adding that women tend to drop out of the workforce in their 30s due to caregiving responsibilities.
Ministry of Health and Welfare data released in 2020 showed that about 21 percent of Taiwanese women leave their jobs after getting married. Only 60 percent subsequently return to the workforce.
Although some continue working, in part due to higher educational levels and a more open-minded society, the public is calling for more initiatives to be implemented to alleviate pressures on working families, Chyn said.
For example, more flexible ways of using parental leave should be legislated, so parents can take time off on a daily or hourly basis, Chyn said.
Civic groups are also calling for parents to be able to take their leave at any time before the child reaches eight years old — instead of the current limit of three years old.
Taiwanese parents are also calling for more publicly funded childcare services, as lots of families are finding they need two salaries to raise a family, Chyn said.
Along with other rights advocates in Taiwan, Chyn urged the government to provide more publicly funded services.
“It’s not just children who need looking after, but also the elderly,” she said.
In Taiwan, people have a legal responsibility to ensure their parents are sufficiently cared for.
Chen, as a young parent, agreed, saying that publicly funded care services are important, because parents are afraid that they might hire incompetent nannies, or mistakenly send their children to substandard primary schools.
With the help of these services, parents can focus more on their careers and would not be forced to quit work to provide care for family members, Chen said.
As people come together to celebrate the progress made toward gender equality on International Women’s Day, it is important to remember that the issue is about more than just treating women fairly, but is a broader topic that is linked to democracy, she said.
“Living in a democracy means everyone’s voice is heard,” Chyn said.
The government needs to take everyone’s point of view and experiences into account when formulating policy, including those of women, she added.
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