Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) and civic groups yesterday called on the government to reform the alimony laws in the Civil Code to protect women after divorce.
Taiwanese district courts awarded alimony to only 21 women from 2009 to 2018, or 22 percent of all female litigants suing for spousal support, she told a news conference at the legislature in Taipei ahead of Mother’s Day.
The Awakening Foundation and Warm Life Association cohosted the event.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The legal standard for awarding alimony should be based on the amount of income a spouse would have had if they did not marry, not economic hardship as currently stipulated by the Civil Code, Fan said.
Under the current law, a divorced woman who is a senior citizen, victim of domestic abuse or has a chronic condition is not entitled to alimony if she has a job earning the minimum wage, Fan said.
Ministry of Labor statistics show that 90 percent of Taiwanese women are in the workforce, while 21 percent of Taiwanese women resigned from a job to get married and 23 percent of Taiwanese women resigned from a job to raise children, she said.
In one case, a former doctor had to earn a living as an assembly line worker after divorce because her license to practice had expired, Fan said.
She received no alimony from her ex-husband, she said.
The decision to award alimony and the amount of support allocated should be based on the loss of employment opportunities or income that occurred due to marriage to uphold equity, Fan said.
Alimony is compensation to divorced women for the career sacrifices they make for marriage and not a mechanism for poverty relief, she said, citing the fourth report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
The last time the alimony laws were amended was in 2003, she added.
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