An annual government survey released yesterday suggested that the public are supportive of a woman’s right to body autonomy, education and equality at the workplace, yet conservative trends still dominate the private sphere regarding gendered roles in families.
The survey showed that 58.3 percent of respondents believe women are better than men at caring for children, the third consecutive time a majority expressed the opinion in the annual poll, the Executive Yuan Gender Equality Commission said in a statement.
Yet, 96.3 percent of respondents believe husbands are just as important in doing housework as their wives, the survey said.
Photo: CNA
An overwhelming majority of the public, 93.4 percent, disagreed that women should not be considered to be victims of rape or harassment unless they physically resisted sexual advances in addition to verbally withholding consent.
It showed that 94.7 percent of the public disagreed that women are not suited for science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
Meanwhile, popular support for marriage equality surged following the promulgation of the 2019 amendments to the Civil Code legalizing same-sex marriage, the survey showed.
This year’s survey showed that 69.9 percent of respondents believe that same-sex partners should have the right to marry, up from 37.4 percent of respondents in 2018, the first time the survey was conducted.
In addition, the survey showed that 78 percent agreed that married same-sex couples have a right to adopt children, up from 24.2 percent in 2018.
The survey showed that 91.5 percent of respondents agreed that they could work with a transgender person, the third consecutive year the figure was 90 percent or higher.
Of the respondents, 76.2 percent agreed that transgender people should dress however they feel most comfortable at school or in the workplace, while 57.2 percent said they would feel comfortable sharing public restrooms with transgender people, the survey found.
However, the survey revealed mixed opinions as to whether transgender people should be able to change their personal identification documents.
It said 59.3 percent of respondents agreed that transgendered people should have the right to change the registered sex on their national identification card, but 40.6 percent believed such a right should reserved for people who have completed gender reassignment procedures.
Popular support for transgender people to change their registered sex without requiring them to undergo gender reassignment did not exceed 50 percent in the past three years.
This year’s survey also revealed an increase in public awareness and education regarding sexual harassment prevention.
Of those surveyed, 93.4 percent agreed that if a woman says “no” verbally, but does not physically object, it still counts as sexual harassment or assault.
Moreover, 94.1 percent of respondents said they would report a colleague being sexually harassed to their company.
The survey targeted adults older than 20 and was conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing from April 24 to 28. There were 1,077 responses with a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
Additional reporting by CNA
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