GENDER INEQUALITY: The Childcare Policy Alliance said that while female participation in the labor force is increasing, male participation in parenting has not

Taipei Times
Date:  Aug 05, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

The government should amend parental leave regulations to encourage fathers to take time off in the four weeks following a child’s birth, advocacy groups told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

Representatives from groups including the Childcare Policy Alliance, the Birth Empowerment Alliance of Taiwan and the Awakening Foundation urged the government to allow fathers to receive 90 percent of their usual pay for time they take off work in the first month following a child’s birth.

Since 2002, the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法) has allowed workers to take parental leave up until the child reaches the age of three, the Childcare Policy Alliance said, adding that in 2009, provisions were added to give employees who take unpaid parental leave an allowance equal to 60 percent of their usual pay for the first six months.

However, citing the 2020 Gender at a Glance report published by the Executive Yuan’s Department of Gender Equality, the Childcare Policy Alliance said that women still accounted for most of those who take parental leave.    [FULL  STORY]