If comments left on Facebook are any indication, Taiwanese women are dissatisfied with how far women’s rights have advanced in today’s society, a women’s organization said yesterday ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday.
“Although Taiwan has been making legislative progress in protecting women’s rights over the past few years, the government has refused to promote gender equality as an important social value,” said Yang Wan-ying (楊婉瑩), chairwoman of the Awakening Foundation.
She said, for example, that officials did not fully consider women’s needs when they decided to boost the declining birthrate by giving out cash for childbirth.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“What women really want is a high-quality public daycare system,” she said at a press conference.
“We are not vending machines into which you throw some coins in return for a baby,” wrote one Internet user, ridiculing the government’s plan.
Fan Yun (范雲), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Sociology, added that although women are allowed up to six months of -maternity leave according to the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別工作平等法), it is not uncommon for private employers to simply fire female workers who are pregnant and who apply for leave.
A visiting female academic from Beijing also shared her disappointment over gender stereotyping at the press conference, even among educated individuals.
“My best friend said that I abandoned my family in China just to have fun for myself, but I came here for research, just as my husband does when he visits the United States,” she said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
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The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
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