The proportion of young women in Taiwan who do not want to have children is exceptionally high — 45.9 percent among women aged 15 to 24 — a Ministry of Health and Welfare survey showed.
As Taiwan faces low birthrates, a survey last year found that 26.6 percent of women aged 15 to 64 do not want to have children, and nearly half of young women between the ages of 15 and 24 have crossed off having children from their bucket list.
The survey showed that the proportions of women who “do not want to bear children” in different age groups had nearly all increased between 2019 and last year.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Among them, the proportion of young women aged 15 to 24 who do not want to bear children increased from 31.3 percent in 2019 to 45.9 percent last year, it found.
The proportion of women in the 25 to 34 age group and the 35 to 44 demographic who do not want children rose to 37.4 percent and 25.9 percent last year respectively, the survey showed.
The three most common reasons for not wanting children were “too much financial burden,” which accounted for 60.3 percent, followed by “unwilling to change their current lifestyle to have children” at 49.4 percent and “worried about parenting and children’s education or future development” at 34.3 percent.
A specialist said that the answers showed that it is not only a financial problem, but also a reflection of younger people caring about their quality of life and their unwillingness to bear long-term pressure of raising children.
There are now more women who work and earn an income — up to 78.6 percent of women are earning salaries, with an average monthly salary of NT$37,511, which is almost NT$6,000 higher than the average five years ago.
The survey also showed that more women are becoming their family’s primary breadwinner, and their economic statuses are almost the same as that of the men in their family. However, earning more money does not mean reduced pressure, as married women spend an average of more than four hours doing chores or taking care of family members each day — about 2.6 times longer than men.
Childcare Policy Alliance spokesman Wang Chao-ching (王兆慶) yesterday said that although more women are economically independent, the responsibility of taking care of family members still often falls on women.
They are “burning the candle at both ends,” leading to a “low fertility trap,” which is difficult to reverse, he said.
The ideal number of children would also decrease, he added.
“From originally wanting two children to thinking one child is acceptable, they might decide not having children is even better,” Wang said.
He used a seesaw as a metaphor for women juggling family and work, and added that the government must address three main problems.
First, it must provide public childcare services that are “affordable, trustworthy and accessible in terms of time and location,” so that parents could balance working and taking care of children, he said.
Second, it should promote a “dual track” system of care, asking men to take on actual responsibility in raising children, Wang said, adding that the parental leave application rate among men in Taiwan was only about 5 percent.
He also cited as an example the Japanese government, which has set a goal of raising the rate to 85 percent by 2030.
Third, a “child-friendly” workplace environment is also necessary, such as having flexible work hours, the ability to do remote work and eliminating discrimination toward those who apply for parental leave, Wang said.
Taiwan’s birthrate has remained at about 0.9 births per woman for years, while the number of marriages and births in South Korea — where the birthrate was the lowest — have been increasing and might even exceed Taiwan’s soon, he said.
Providing monetary subsidies or assisted reproductive services might help address the nation’s low birthrate, but they are not enough to reverse the trend, Wang said.
Only by offering public childcare services, urging men to share the burden of raising children and creating a child-friendly workplace environment could women be encouraged to have children, he added.
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