mea culpa

Today's China Post editorial:

Men's attitudes must change for birth rates to improve

Various media around the world reported last week's offer by Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior (MOI) of NT$1 million for a slogan most likely to make people want to have babies.

Perhaps not realizing that NT$1 million is worth somewhat less than the U.S. version, Internet users have been particularly humorous and creative, with some making reference to the recent brouhaha over Taipei 101's “Taiwan UP” catchphrase, and others substituting bodily organs in the Tourism Bureau's “Taiwan Touch Your Heart” slogan.

But Taiwan's falling birth rate — which last year stood at 8.29 births per 1,000 people and compared to the global average of over 20 — is a serious issue as it could lead to challenging economic and social problems. Reversing it, finding other means to increase the work force, or developing strategies to deal with a graying population are, therefore, policies with which the MOI is right to be concerned. But governments around the world — with the exception of certain authoritarian regimes — have long found their influence over citizens' reproduction very limited at best.

The R.O.C. is no newcomer to this game. As Taiwan's birth rate rose during the 1950s post-war boom and its death rate declined due to medical improvements, the first calls sounded for birth control despite traditional Han Chinese thinking that “more sons and more grandsons” was life's greatest blessing, and that “of the three un-filial acts, leaving no descendant was the worst.” Nevertheless, the first birth-control policy went into practice in 1968 under the slogan of the “Five Threes” (bearing the first child three years after marriage; leaving a gap of three years before the second; having no more than three children; and completing one's family before the age of 33). This was succeeded by “Less Children; More Happiness”; then by “3-3-2-1” (in which two children were just right and it was equally good to have girls as boys); and then by “3-2-1” (with two children just right, but one not too few).

The government then turned to financial incentives, which included tax cuts, government subsidies, public day-care centers for working women and preferential health care for children.

To judge from the MOI's latest announcement, these measures are having little effect, and over the last few days, in contrast to their more mischievous Internet colleagues, Taiwan's traditional media has undertaken a sober study of the underlying reasons and potential solutions.

Their interviews with officials, academics and people in the street identified a range of problems, some of which might be amenable to policy influence and others of a more intractable nature.

Of the former, potential parents complained that thresholds for financial support are set too high, costs of childcare are still prohibitive, and although legislation supports the right to take parental leave from work, in reality — particular for women in private companies — this could be detrimental to career promotion or even lead to unemployment.

As for the latter, there is only so much the government can do to improve the current economic climate — which was cited by many of the married women seeking abortions in one report over the weekend — and even less regarding citizens' falling confidence in their future prosperity.

Women's most common grievance, however, was that too many males still cling to antiquated attitudes of “prioritizing men and undervaluing women” and that “men are masters of the world while women rule the home.” Why, women ask, should they have children if it means increased household duties of cooking meals, helping with homework and cleaning up after children, while their husbands put their feet up? What value are their increased educational and occupational opportunities of the last few decades if men's attitudes have failed to keep up?

Seemingly in agreement, many media commentators lamented that, while young men of college age might be making some progress in this respect, those who should be fathering the nation's next generation are particularly entrenched in their traditional thinking. Perhaps these men's attitudes could be the focus of the MOI's slogan campaign.