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Many married women still choose to stay home

Marriage remains one of the major reasons women bow out of the job market, with approximately 30 percent of local women in various age groups choosing to stay home full time after getting married, according to a new book on women's issues.

The Taiwan Women Yearbook -- First Edition, published by the government-funded Foundation for Women's Rights Promotion and Development, said the percentage of working women who quit the job market after marriage is closely related to the level of education.

Quoting official tallies, the book says that the ratio of Taiwanese women who quit their jobs after marriage is 46 percent among those who have only received the compulsory nine years of education or less, compared to 35 percent among senior high school graduates and 16 percent among those who have university degrees.

quit jobs

Regardless of education level, over 60 percent of women who quit their jobs because of marriage never returned to the job market, according to the yearbook.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the launch of the new book, Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), a lawyer and long-time women's rights activist, attributed the low rate of return to employment among well-educated women to a combination of factors, including better financial status and reluctance to take up undesirable jobs.

The steady improvement of Taiwan's education levels has not necessarily contributed to an increase in the number of working women, the book says. In 1987, the rate of working women reached 46.5 percent but then gradually slid to between 44 percent and 45 percent.

reversed

The downward trend reversed in 2002 when the rate rose to 46.6 percent before hitting a new high of 48.1 percent in 2005.

In 2005, the number of working women was about 4.35 million, up a mere 1.6 percent from the level 20 years earlier. During the same year, the rate of working men dropped to a new low of 67.6 percent, down a full 10 percent from 1981.

Meanwhile, the yearbook said, the rate of married working women was 47.9 percent in 2005, roughly the same as in 1996 when the rate was 47.1 percent.

`unchanged'

"All these figures indicate that the ratio of women who continue to work after marriage has remained almost unchanged over the past decade," Yu said, adding that the trend demonstrates that the government has not done enough to encourage married women to return to the job market.

The Taiwan Women Yearbook is the first of its kind ever published in the country.

It collates significant developments and changes in women's rights and gender equality, including difficulties confronted and progress made by both the government and women's rights advocacy groups.

The book was compiled by the Foundation for Women's Rights Promotion and Development with the assistance of major women's rights groups to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Commission on the Promotion of Women's Rights under the Executive Yuan.
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