Tsai Pi-yueh is a 30-year-old software engineer for Accton Technology. She is also the mother of a nineteen-month-old child. She is unusual because she handles both roles happily and well.

She enjoys liberal benefits from her company. When she gave birth to her daughter in July of 2000, Tsai wanted to go home and be a full-time mother. Her boss first allowed her to take two months of maternity leave. Later she worked at home. Now she comes in for two afternoons a week, and her salary is one-third of what it was before.

Tsai makes it clear that her family would have a hard time getting by for long on just her husband's salary. She makes this analogy: "Before we were eating beef noodles; now we're just eating plain noodles. We have enough to make ends meet and fill our bellies, but we have had to adjust our lifestyle."

Her husband, who is also an engineer at Accton, once wondered, "Why don't we just put our child in daycare?" But Tsai was just as determined to care for her little girl as she had been previously to breast feed her. "Parents are best able to understand a child's state of mind and potential," Tsai says. "I want her to realize what is special about her." Her husband gradually came around to her way of thinking.

Tsai is very happy with her life now and doesn't think much about what will happen when she returns to the workplace. "Work is getting more and more varied, and the future is bound to bring big changes," she says. "I'm just concentrating on being a good mother now."

Gender equality requires changing both the system and people's conceptions. Women can fight wars, and men can be stay-at-home dads. (photo by Diago Chiu)

Giving the child back

About 12% of Taiwanese women enjoy benefits similar to those of Tsai Pi-yueh, but after March 8, when the Law on Gender Equality in the Workplace (LGEW) goes into effect, that will change. All firms with more than 30 employees will be required to offer unpaid leave of six months to two years to any employee with a new baby who has been at the firm for at least a year, whether the employee is a man or a woman. At the end of this period, the company is required to take back the employee at his or her original (or a comparable) position. The idea behind the law is to give children back to their parents, and still manage to prevent society from forever losing talented individuals from the workforce.

New Party legislator C.T. Hsieh, who jokes that the LGEW was her "senior thesis," explains that the law languished in the Legislative Yuan for ten years, going through nine drafts, with the earliest draft drawn up by DPP legislators. After the DPP won the presidency, many of its legislators were given positions in the cabinet, and Hsieh was left to pick up the baton. With so many drafts, the Council of Labor Affairs exerted a lot of energy behind the scenes to move the process along. It hired six experts to iron out differences between the drafts. These experts prepared the law in its embryonic form.

"What I care most about is whether women, if they choose to take time off to care for their children, will have channels to reenter the workforce," Hsieh says. She holds that her standpoint is really very conservative, based in the firm belief that no one can take a mother's place.

Yu Mei-nu, a long time activist in the women's movement, declares that the 21st century is an age of brainpower. Developmental psychologists have long believed "the first three years define a lifetime." The brain is developing intensively during these years. It is the key period for molding a person's character and emotional makeup. "The law requires appropriate measures to encourage parents to spend time at home with their children as much as possible during these key years."

Many enlightened companies work hard to create a supportive environment for their employees. The photo shows the playground at Accton Technology's daycare center.

The long road to enactment

By December 21 of last year, when the LGEW finally passed its third reading in the Legislative Yuan, it had already been batted about in the legislature for 11 years.

The origins of the bill go back to a controversy that erupted in June of 1987 when the Sun Yat-sen Memorial and the Kaohsiung cultural center fired 50 women because they were over 30 years old. The authorities argued that the Sun Yat-sen Memorial was a national-level cultural institution and that it was essential that the guides there who introduced foreigners to Chinese culture be young and pretty.

This was back when martial law was just about to be lifted. It was an era when powerful social movements needed just a spark, and this one got women's groups up in arms. Awakening Magazine, the Women's Research Program at National Taiwan University, and various other organizations that were still unable to officially register during the era of martial law, took to the streets with protest banners.

Over the course of their protests and successful repeal of the under-30 requirement, these women's groups were unable to find any law that protected women's right to work. When the Consumers' Foundation pushed the cabinet to approve their citizen-drafted consumer protection law, women's groups decided to follow suit. A group of women activist lawyers, including Yu Mei-nu, Pan Jin-fang and Liu Chih-peng, studied related laws in Europe, America and Japan. The fruit of their research was a draft version of the LGEW, which was presented to the Legislative Yuan in 1990. Yet by 1998, with the exception of the passage of its name and its first article, the law had gone nowhere.

To push the law forward, women's groups launched petition drives, conducted studies about discrimination against pregnant women in the public and private sectors, and held public hearings about the requirement for some jobs that women remain unmarried. These caused society to take a second look, and last year the Legislative Yuan completed the third reading (and thus passage) of the bill.

When the economy suffers and companies cut staff because of dwindling revenue, workers suffer most. Many are worried that the Law on Gender Equality in the Workplace will saddle companies with undue cost increases.

Life's two major passages

Although the LGEW does protect women's right to work, it does not guarantee women jobs. "We hope that capable women will not be fired because they get married or pregnant," explains Yu Mei-nu. "But incapable or lazy women will not receive any special treatment."

Chiao Hsing-kai, an assistant researcher at Academia Sinica's Institute of European and American Studies who is an expert on labor law, says that from now on advertisements will no longer bear the phrases: "only men" or "only women need apply."

It sometimes is just a matter of changing people's conceptions. He gives the following example: When the US attacked Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, women in the American military were already serving on the front lines. And when America attacked Afghanistan in response to the events of September 11, there were women officers serving in decision-making positions. The American military had long ago started investigating the possibility of increasing the percentage of women in the armed forces. In the future there won't be any positions that are gender specific.

"The main purpose of the law is to raise the level of women's participation in the workforce," Chiao Hsing-kai explains. After breaking 40% in 1983, the percentage of women in the workforce has been stalled at about 45% for over ten years. This is not only lower than the 60% figure in America, it is also lower than the figures in many Asian nations, including Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

There are two main reasons that women in Taiwan leave the workforce: marriage and childbirth. According to a 2000 survey by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, 36% of Taiwanese women who left their jobs did so because of marriage, particularly because they were "preparing to have a baby." Another 24% of women who left their jobs were about to give birth to their first child and wanted to care for their child. And for every ten such women, only three were planning to return.

In order to promote equality for women in the workforce, the LGEW stipulates several new holidays. In addition to the maternity leave outlined by the Labor Standards Law, husbands now have also been granted two paid days off when their wives give birth. What's more, when a member of a household comes down with a major illness and requires someone to care for them, a worker can request a leave of absence of up to seven days, and these are not counted against vacation time. Women workers can take off up to one day of menstrual leave a month (which is counted as a sick day for pay purposes, and not considered a day off for attendance purposes).

Tsai Pi-yueh works for Accton Technology in the Hsinchu technology park. Because of the liberal benefits provided by Accton, she is able to assume the double role of career woman and mother.

Another disaster for business?

It was in some respects an awkward time for the bill's passage, what with a high unemployment rate and a generally poor business climate. It's one thing if a business is making money, but if a company running in the red has to give its employees extra days off, won't this just make labor costs too much to bear? And if a company thus closes up shop, won't the employees ultimately be the victims? This isn't just the concern of businesses; it's a fear of many wage earners!

In January the website 1111 Manpower Bank invited Windbond Electronics, the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce and other representatives of industry to discuss the impact of this new law on businesses. Executives of companies pointed out that although the one day of menstrual leave counts as a sick day for which employers are only required to pay half a day's wages, under the law these days off cannot affect attendance bonuses. Since any day a man takes off is counted against these bonuses, isn't this discrimination against men?

1111 Manpower Bank also surveyed 100 members of the financial services industry about the new law. More than 80% were against the provisions for maternity and paternity leaves and the requirement that businesses provide daycare facilities, believing that these would raise operational costs and create scheduling difficulties.

Off the record, an executive of a high-tech company located in the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park said: "The women's rights movement has gone too far. It is affecting competitiveness." Some people are worried that industry might begin to believe that hiring women is more trouble than it's worth, with the result that women might lose job opportunities.

"Perhaps this is a danger," says Kuo Chi-jen, vice chairman of the Council of Labor Affairs. Nevertheless, Kuo points out that when the Labor Standards Law was passed in 1987, industry was up in arms, but now they have completely adapted. The LGEW ought to be much easier for them to comply with. The Council of Labor Affairs has decided to use incentives rather than penalties, in the hope of getting labor and management to come to a consensus.

"A critical response from industry was expected," says Chiao Hsing-kai, but many of the criticisms have been based on misunderstandings. For instance, the law stipulates that businesses which employ more than 250 people must provide daycare facilities. Many employers think that this requires them to establish such facilities in house, but actually the law isn't nearly so rigid, and there are numerous ways to comply. Companies can provide daycare subsidies to families, sign contracts with professional daycare providers to handle these services for their employees, or just post on their website a list of neighborhood day-care centers. Any of these will satisfy the law's requirements.

The Council of Labor Affairs has also drawn up financial incentives for businesses to provide daycare. If a company establishes a daycare center, it can obtain as much as NT$1 million in financial assistance. Companies that have already established daycare centers can obtain NT$300,000 per year for new equipment. If a company arranges for an alternative method of day care, it can obtain NT$100,000 a year.

Industry coddling

When the LGEW goes into effect on March 8, it is sure to meet with a chorus of critical voices. But the truth is that many companies already provide daycare voluntarily in the belief that it is a win-win situation.

In 1997 Accton Technology established its first daycare center on the first floor of its building. Then last year, when the space for the center became too small, the company established 300-plus square meter daycare center in a building that is a five-minute drive away. The classrooms have wood floors, five full-time teachers and more than 30 children. The youngest is only three months old. The cost is NT$9,500 a month. It's cheaper than hiring a babysitter, and allows the parents to be near their children. The center has been very well received.

Taiwan Semiconductor, which employs more than 14,000 workers, has a famous daycare center with a mixed-age bilingual environment. Currently, eight teachers take care of 100 students, with many more on the waiting list.

Kaohsiung's Nantzu Export Processing Zone, as well as the industrial parks of Linkou and Chungli, each have daycare centers that serve all of their companies. Chungli's center is well over 2000 square meters, and in addition to its classrooms it also has ample green space. Its more than 190 charges play happily both inside and out of doors.

"The LGEW isn't going to cause us great difficulties, because we were already offering benefits above what is now legally required," says Lin Tzu-chao, Accton's vice president of Operations. Lin sympathizes with women who have to do double duties at home and at work.

"Konosuke Matsushita, the Japanese management guru, once said that not making a profit is evil, because a company has so many workers to support," Lin says. Last year was Accton's most profitable in its history, and so the company was willing to pour money into benefits for its employees. This is also the trend in the advanced industrial nations.

A leader in the service industry, 7-Eleven (owned in Taiwan by President Foods) has long had a flexible personnel system. For many years they have offered two days for paternity leave and 14 sick days per year at half pay, as well as the opportunity to request a leave of absence of up to a year with the guarantee of the same salary upon one's return. Beyond a year, one can then request an extension of leave but will not be guaranteed the same job back.

It's not just for the women

The LGEW is well intended, but many people agree that it will require a period of adjustment before it really can be effectively implemented. The biggest obstacle is the requirement of two years of maternity leave. However, it turns out that in practice, few women want to take maternity leave.

Hu Pi-hua works for Nan Yang Industries (the local Honda affiliate) in Chungli Industrial Park. Finding it exhausting caring for her child at home, Hu decided to go back to work and let the grandparents care for the child. "Many families, when comparing the wife's salary to the cost of a baby sitter, will decide that it makes sense to let the wife go back to work."

Even though Accton announced a maternity leave program two years ago, among the 830 women employees, only three have actually applied to take a leave. Nan Yang and President have implemented similar leave programs, and alike found that few women take advantage.

Although the new law includes the words "gender equality" in its name, most people are under the impression that it is a policy that favors women.

"In truth, we also encourage men to take paternity leave," says Chiao Hsing-kai. "That misperception will gradually change." But since women make only 70% of what men make in Taiwan, it is inevitable that more women take time off to care for the kids.

"Even if I earned more than my husband," says Nan Yang's Hu Pi-hua, "It's hard for me to imagine asking my husband to leave work and care for the kids. I've got to look out for his sense of masculinity and self-respect."

Making both genders happy

Whether it's a question of "whose salary is higher" or "whose self-respect should be protected," there is no denying that Taiwan is gradually embracing the concept of gender equality

In Taiwan today the family that can be supported by a single breadwinner is rare indeed. Rather than the traditional "three generations under one roof," the nuclear family now predominates. How many families face the dilemma of having both parents at work, children at home and no one to care for the grandparents?

In balancing work and home, families in Taiwan now have a new choice: parents needn't fear that they will be forced out of the workplace forever if they choose to take maternity or paternity leave. By aiming to create a system of gender equality at the workplace, this new law may have given birth to a society of gender equality, where women's problems are everyone's problems.