A record percentage of new fathers applied for paternity leave in 2022 following the passage of higher subsidies the year before, the Executive Yuan’s annual report on gender showed on Monday.
In July 2021, the Cabinet raised the amount of paid parental leave for parents of children under three from 60 to 80 percent of their insured salary for up to six months.
They are also no longer required to apply for one six-month block, but can opt to take off a month or more at a time.
Photo: CNA
The change helped to increase the percentage of new fathers taking time off to 25.2 percent, up dramatically from 18.2 percent in 2020 and setting a new record, according to the Cabinet’s 2024 Gender at a Glance in the ROC (Taiwan) report, which was released on Monday.
Last year also marked the first time that Taiwan was evaluated in the OECD Development Centre’s Social Institutions and Gender Index, it said.
The nation ranked first in Asia and sixth globally among 179 countries, earning a score of 9.2 out of 100, with 0 indicating no gender discrimination and 100 indicated absolute discrimination.
Photo from the 2024 Gender at a Glance in the ROC (Taiwan) report
In terms of government participation, the number of women in the legislature dropped slightly to 41.6 percent in this month’s election, from 42.5 percent after the 2022 legislative by-election, the Cabinet report showed.
However, it was about on par with the ratio following the election in 2020, it added.
After the local government elections in 2022, women represented more than one-third of top positions in seven municipalities, although four failed to reach 20 percent, it showed.
From the legalization of same-sex marriage in May 2019 to July last year, the number of people registering such unions had reached 22,958, of whom 6,860 were men and 16,098 were women, the report said.
Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of sexual harassment complaints were made by women last year, while 24 percent of all such incidents happened online, it showed.
Women made up 23.1 percent of all researchers in 2021 after slow but steady increases from 21.7 percent in 2012, the report showed.
While women college graduates dominated the education, arts and humanities fields in 2020, the STEM fields where they were most represented were the natural sciences, mathematics and statistics at 43.1 percent, it said.
Women comprised 29.5 percent of graduates in information and communications technology (ICT), and 18.9 percent in engineering and manufacturing, it said.
Taiwan’s women had a particularly strong showing in ICT, with the ratio coming in 3.9 to 8.1 percentage points higher than its global peers, it added.
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