The Invisible Female Overwork

Huang Yi-Ling/ translated by Joseph Yeh

MAY 25 2021

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May is the month that celebrates motherhood as many countries around the world have designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. In doing so they are honoring mothers for their greatness and sacrifices. In modern society, however, many women have chosen not to be mothers. Why is this happening? 

According to the latest CIA forecast of global fertility rates, the bottom five are Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, among 227 countries and regions. Taiwan ranked last, with just 1.07 births expected per woman of childbearing age between 15 to 45. 

Taiwan’s Interior Ministry data also showed that the nation’s birthrate in 2020 is the lowest ever. Last year, Taiwan's population fell for the first time on record, when the number of deaths exceeded the number of births. Low birthrate is now officially a national security issue. 

Why women in Taiwan have been reluctant in giving births?

The answer to the question is a complicated one with a combination of pressure due to traditional gender role, and simply being a mother as well as insufficient governmental funding in support child raising. In terms of workplace, a survey released by local job bank last month on working mothers’ fatigue index revealed the fact that they have an average working hour or 10.6 per day. Among them, 20.7 percent of working mothers are working more than 12 hours a day and have a high risk of overwork.  

The average fatigue index among these working moms has a score of 77.3 in a scale from 0 to 100. Among them, 15.1 percent said the level of their fatigue index has reached the highest level of a score 100. Also, 92.7 percent of working mothers said they had thought about leaving their homes “to take a break.” The survey has reflected the reality of being a working mother on how they are facing huge pressure from both within her own family and from the workplace. Therefore, many Taiwanese women are afraid of being mothers and reluctant to give births. 

The invisible labor is especially high for women

If we look into the numbers of compensation claims granted by Taiwan’s labor insurance bureau on work-related cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases over the past decade, we can see that among the 757 claims, only 80 of them or around 10.6 percent are made by women. Does such a huge gender difference tell us women are less likely to overwork? The answer is no, in reality women’s overwork issue has largely being ignored and invisible. 

Studies have shown that cardiovascular disease develops 7 to 10 years later in women than in men because women are protected by hormones. After menopause, women no longer protected by hormones and the risk of heart disease in women is as high as men. Statistics in 2019 shows that cardiovascular disease is the second top cause of death in Taiwan for both men and women. Heart disease death rate for male aged 64 and younger constitutes 31.65 percent of all heart disease deaths for men in 2019. Heart disease death rate for females aged 64 and younger, meanwhile, constitutes only 11.13 percent of all heart disease deaths for women in 2019. 

If we consider the fact that women are more likely to leave workplace earlier than men to take care of family, we will see that heart disease death rate for females aged 49 and younger constitutes only 3.05 percent of all heart disease death for women in 2019. The statistics reveal the fact that women are largely protected by hormones during their working age and therefore they are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease during that period of time. That is why very few women have applied for labor insurance compensations over work-related cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. 

As shown in a study titled “Distribution and Correlates of Burnout among Paid Employees in Taiwan” conducted by National Taiwan University’s the Institute of Health Policy and Management, the average personal burnout score among all paid employees in Taiwan age between 25 to 65 for men and women stand at 33.9 and 36.6 respectively. The average work-related burnout score among all paid employees in Taiwan age between 25 to 65 for men and women stand at 27.9 and 29.2 respectively. Also, in all age brackets, women have higher scores in terms of average personal and work-related burnouts. Women has the highest personal burnout score in the 35-45 age bracket that stands at 37.7. Women has the highest work-related burnout score in the 25-35 age bracket with an average score of 30.4.

The NTU study as well as the above-mentioned survey have both shown that women tend to suffer from higher fatigue and burnout rates comparing with their male counterparts. But unlike men that tend to develop cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases due to overwork, women are more likely to develop lower back, neck, shoulder and other muscular pain as well as depression, as indicted by professor Yawen Cheng of the NTU team.

However, work-related musculoskeletal disorders are determined by tasks requiring repetitive movements and health authorities have set a very high standard in determining work-related psychological diseases. That is why only very few occupation hazard compensation claims, around single digit, based on work-related musculoskeletal disorders and psychological diseases, have been granted each year. The overwork and work-related burnout issues, therefore, are not being reflected in official statistics and largely ignored by government authorities. So currently many of those musculoskeletal and psychological disorders that are actually caused by women’s work, are being categorized as personal issue. If the authorities continue to overlook the overwork issue for women in both workplace and in their family, such issue will continue to worse in the future.