More than 87 percent of Taiwanese women said they do not want to have children, while more than 50 percent of mothers said they are unhappy, according to survey results released by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday ahead of Mother’s Day today.
The survey, which polled 906 women between the ages of 20 and 49 with a margin of error of 3.3 percent, showed 54.9 percent of mothers said they felt unhappy while 41.3 percent said they are happy.
Meanwhile, 87.3 percent of women said they do not want to give birth.
The poll showed that 21.5 percent of women said they do not want to children because of the heavy economic burden. Deputy director of the DPP’s women’s affairs department Chiang Yueh-chin (蔣月琴) added that the poll showed women between the ages of 30 and 39 are most concerned about the cost of raising a child, followed by women in the 20 to 29 age group.
The head of the Taiwan Community Care Association, Liu Yu-hsiu (劉毓秀), told the press conference held by the DPP that the poll also suggested the nation’s low birthrate has much to do with its lack of a childcare system. Subsidies did little to encourage women to give birth because what the public really wants is an inexpensive and quality childcare system, she added.
A separate survey conducted by the online job bank Yes123 showed that 65 percent of working moms rated their level of hardship as high as 80 on a scale of 0 to 100.
The survey set a hardship index of 0 to 100, with every 10 points counting as a different range. Scores of between 0 and 60 indicated no hardship, 60 to 80 meant a manageable level of hardship and scores exceeding 80 indicated severe hardship.
According to the survey, which polled 2,122 working mothers with a margin of error of 2.13 percent, 65 percent of the respondents thought it was very hard to be a working mother and 35 percent experienced hardship exceeding a score of 90, symbolizing the excess hardships a working mother in Taiwan has to endure.
Of the surveyed women, 75.8 percent listed managing household affairs after work as the top reason they feel stress, while 64.5 percent listed raising children as the reason, 63.8 cited a lack of personal time and 59 percent said educating children caused stress.
Nearly 20 percent admitted to being stressed over the need to guard against xiaosan (小三). Xiaosan is a recent popular term that means the third party in an extramarital affair.
The survey also showed that mothers regarded governmental and corporate measures to benefit working mothers as inadequate, with 42 percent of working women feeling no beneficial measures of any sort for them.
When working mothers are faced with the dilemma of balancing work with caring for their children, nearly 67 percent said they would change their work because they were expecting children. Meanwhile, 20 percent said they did not file for unpaid parental leave out of fear of losing their jobs, the survey said.
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
RSS