The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday proposed six amendments to benefit women to mark International Women’s Day.
The KMT proposed a new monthly family support subsidy of NT$10,000 for up to two years; extending maternity leave from eight to 12 weeks; paying women an additional 20 percent of wages during maternity leave if it is their second or subsequent child; allowing mothers to file for paid leave to care for children under the age of six, up from three; full tuition subsidies for children aged three to five; and eventually legalizing surrogacy, KMT Legislator Lin Ssu-ming (林思銘) said.
The government should endeavor to ease the burden on young parents by offering better child welfare policies, he added.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The KMT hopes that its measures contribute to realizing the goal of building families that share equal rights, it said.
KMT Legislator Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) said the current eight-week maternity leave has roots in the now-defunct factories act that was introduced in 1929, adding that the nation has not made any adjustments in nearly a century.
Taiwan’s maternity leave is inferior to those in other countries, with Japan having 14 weeks, Singapore having 16 weeks, Australia having 18 weeks and Vietnam having six months of paid maternity leave, Wan said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
At a separate news conference at the legislature yesterday, Taiwan Women’s Link president Huang Shu-ying (黃淑英) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) urged the government and public to pay more attention to cardiovascular diseases among women.
Taiwan Women’s Link said that cardiovascular diseases are often considered more prevalent in men, when actually it is the leading cause of death for women.
Treatment of cardiovascular diseases should be done while taking note of this trend, as methods of care for men cannot be applied wholesale to women, it added.
Since 2016, the organization has set the second Friday of March every year as Go Red for Women Day, during which people are urged to wear red in support of its event to promote awareness of cardiovascular diseases among women.
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