The number of women in Taiwan living near or below the poverty line has increased by 20,000 over the past 10 years, with about one-third of those being single mothers, a Ministry of Health and Welfare report showed.
Ten years ago, the primary earners of two-thirds of low and lower-middle-income households in Taiwan were men, but the trend over the past decade has shown a growing percentage of households where women were the primary earners, the report showed.
There were 91,000 female-headed households living near or below the poverty line in 2013, accounting for 37.6 percent of all households in that income bracket. By 2023, that number had risen to 110,000, or 43.98 percent.
Photo: CNA
Many impoverished women in Taiwan are in their 40s or 50s, who often care for elderly parents or children in the evenings after working full-time during the day, the ministry said.
Among female-headed households in this category, 27.8 percent are single-parent families with children younger than 18, it added.
The “feminization of poverty” first gained academic attention in the US during the 1980s amid rising divorce rates and births outside of marriage — factors which place single mothers at greater risk of falling into a cycle of poverty, Soochow University Department of Social Work professor Hung Hui-fen (洪惠芬) said yesterday.
The core issue behind single mothers’ poverty is the high cost of raising children, she said.
“I once interviewed a single mother working as a legal adviser at a major financial holding company — someone whose income was in the top 20 percent in Taiwan at the time,” she said.
“However, despite her income, following her divorce, she had to take on additional work to maintain the equivalent of a dual-income lifestyle for her child, as the child’s father did not provide stable financial support,” she added.
Moreover, many women choose to leave the workforce during pregnancy or after childbirth, which disrupts their employment during marriage and worsens their financial situation after divorce, leading to a domino effect, she said.
The gender wage gap and traditional patriarchal beliefs in Taiwan also often result in divorced women receiving less support from their families, making their situations even more difficult, she added.
“However, Taiwan’s wave of growing female poverty is not solely due to changes in family structure. For example, the weakness of the pension system means many elderly women are not adequately protected,” she said.
Social and Family Affairs acting director Chou Tao-chun (周道君) echoed Hung’s statements, saying that persisting social values and gender stereotypes cause women to shoulder most childcare and household responsibilities, leading to career disruptions and other difficulties.
To alleviate family burdens, the government is promoting new childcare policies for children up to the age of six, he said, adding that the policies would increase childcare subsidies and provide more affordable childcare options to help families.
Currently, only about 2 percent of the population qualifies as “poor,” but a more realistic threshold would be 6 percent, a member of an advocacy group said on condition of anonymity.
“We urge legal amendments to broaden protections for the truly economically disadvantaged, improve translation services and other mechanisms for minority groups to ensure unimpeded access to welfare, and bolster childcare support systems,” they said.
Additional reporting by Rachel Lin
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor