Although Taiwan appears to have made significant progress toward gender equality in the workplace, most working mothers feel that they face an unfriendly workplace environment, according to a survey released by online job bank yes123 yesterday.

The poll showed the pressure facing working mothers and their career planning, with 86 percent being unable to strike a balance between work and family, while 81 percent had quarreled with their husbands over how to raise their children and 60 percent argued over work-related issues.

The poll showed that 59 percent of respondents felt that Taiwan’s work environment is not friendly to working mothers, with 62 percent saying that their company had deliberately made things difficult when they applied for personal leave because of their children.

The poll found that 30 percent of working mothers said they would opt not to have children if they had the chance to go back and redo their lives.

The survey found that 79.6 percent of mothers entered the workplace because of financial stress, with 67.3 percent of them needing financial support from their parents and 12.3 percent not needing their parents’ support.

The survey shows how difficult it is for working mothers to juggle family responsibilities and the demands of a full-time job, yes123 spokesman Yang Tsung-bin (楊宗斌) said.

The online poll, which was conducted from April 12 to Friday last week among female yes123 members with children, collected 1,188 valid samples, and has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.84 percentage points.

[Taipei Times, 2018-05-04]