Thirty-eight percent of adult women in Taiwan don't know how to use a computer, according to the results of a poll conducted by a women's group released yesterday.
The survey also revealed that 12 percent have been sexually harassed.
The poll, conducted by a local cable television channel under the auspices of the National Union of Taiwan Women Association (NUTWA), found that 61.8 percent of women over the age of 20 know how to use a personal computer, while 38 percent said that they did not. By comparison, 73 percent of the same cross-section in the US said that they were familiar with how to use a computer.
Of the women who were computer literate, 33 percent use the computer because of their jobs, most of them white-collar career women. Just over 20 percent said they use computers to gain access to new knowledge.
About 36 percent of respondents who couldn't work a computer said that they don't use computers because they have no need for them. One-quarter said they did not have time for computers.
The survey also found that 12 percent of the respondents reported being sexually harassed and 7.7 percent said that they had been sexually harassed verbally.
These figures are alarmingly high, according to Tseng Chao-yuan (
The findings indicate that 970,000 women nationwide have been sexually harassed and 610,000 women have been sexually harassed verbally by men, Tseng said.
The poll of 1,026 women nationwide also found that adult women have control over their home's television remote -- 27 percent saying they made the decisions, compared with 15 percent who said the remote was in the hands of their spouse or children, 12 percent by parents and 12.6 percent by consensus reached by all members of the family.
According to the poll, women aged 60 or above give women's rights in Taiwan a score of 65.7 out of 100. Women between 20 and 29 gave the issue a 58.4.
The cable TV channel's poll had a margin of error of 3 percent.
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