Single mothers in Taiwan are being forced to choose between their careers and children, a survey released yesterday showed.
The survey, conducted by 9999 Pan Asia Human Resource Bank (汎亞人力銀行), polled Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (CCF) aid recipients with children under the age of 18. The survey was conducted from April 19 through May 5 and 1162 mothers answered questions about their financial and family situations.
The survey was released at a press conference where Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chou Ya-su (周雅淑) called for the government to pay more attention to the needs of single mothers and their children. He said that more needs to be done about public daycare facilities and financial support.
Chou said that the survey's statistics indicated that single mothers in Taiwan feel that they must choose between financial security and spending quality time with their children.
According to the survey, 63.44 percent of respondents were employed, with only 42.88 percent of the unemployed saying that they would want career skills training. A lack of funds for daycare for their children was stated as the main reason why they felt career training would be useless.
According to the survey, over half (56.45 percent) of respondents said that financial support for daycare needs was their number one need.
Chou said that in addition to the fact that 32.85 percent of respondents who were employed said that their relationship with their children was "remote," a clear case has been made for increased government attention to daycare facilities.
In response to the survey, CCF representatives said that most single mothers who are aid recipients are on average between 35 years and 45 years old. Most single mothers they are in contact with, they said, have either been abandoned by their spouses or are widows. Although there are less divorced mothers receiving aid, they said, the amount of mothers who became single through divorce has been rising in the past few years.
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