Taiwanese women’s willingness to give birth has increased, but the number of women wanting to be married has dropped, according to a Ministry of Health and Welfare report.
Interviews with Taiwanese women aged 15 to 64 last year found that 46.1 percent of them wanted to marry, 15.3 percent wanted a regular partner without getting married and 38.6 percent wanted neither a partner nor marriage, the report said.
Despite Taiwan’s declining birthrate, 80.8 percent of the women said that they wanted children, while the rest did not.
A similar report from 2011 showed that 70.21 percent of women wanted to marry and 12.44 percent did not, while 54.88 percent wanted children and 45.12 percent did not.
Although the latest report did not give reasons for why more than half of respondents did not want to marry, it said that 56.9 percent of respondents who did not want to have children cited the economic burden they would bring, while 39.4 percent were unwilling to change their current lifestyle and 28.7 percent were concerned about the children’s development.
The report shows that Taiwan’s long-term efforts to promote gender equality have paid off, Wang Pei-ling (王珮玲), a professor at National Chi Nan University’s Department of Social Policy and Social Work, said on Thursday, adding that as women have a higher degree of independence, they are less willing to be constrained by marriage.
Interactions between the families of both partners still play a big role in Taiwanese marriage, making it more complicated than a partnership of only two people, Wang added.
The phenomenon that women are more willing to give birth, despite the birthrate decreasing every year, supports the theory that most young people avoid having children not because they do not want them, but due to the unfriendly larger environment, she said.
Several facets of life, including income, childcare and work, have resulted in many women giving up on the idea of having children, despite wanting them, she said.
“This is what the government should address when it devises national policies. It should find ways to allow women to turn willingness into action, as opposed to only introducing slogans that are of no actual help,” she added.
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