Taiwan's prospective first lady sets example

TAIPEI: Last Monday, the first work day after Taiwanese voters overwhelmingly elected Ma Ying-jeou as the next president, the public was focused not on how Ma would tackle the economy or relations with China - but whether his wife, Chow Mei-ching, should quit her job.

As she had done for years, Chow, dressed in her usual jeans and black top, caught a bus to work as a lawyer for Mega International Commercial Bank, a major Taiwanese bank. A pack of TV journalists crowded aboard, filming her commute as the normally low-profile Chow stared uncomfortably out the window.

Nearly nonstop media coverage followed. Analysts debated on the air whether Chow should keep working at the bank, where she has worked for more than 20 years and is now director of the legal affairs department, or sacrifice her career and take up duties as first lady after Ma's inauguration on May 20.
In a "frequently asked questions" column on the Web site of The China Times, the newspaper said working might pose a conflict of interest for Chow: "As a director, she must negotiate what's best for the bank, but that's not necessarily what's best for the country."

"So all she can do is stay at home and keep Ma Hsiao-jeou company?" one reader asked, referring to the couple's dog.

Office ladies discussed the issue over lunch. Officials from her husband's Nationalist Party and rival Democratic Progressive Party weighed in, urging her to resign.

That Chow's dilemma has ignited such strong public interest reflects a significant shift in the mind-sets, not to mention social status, of Taiwanese women in recent years, with many of them putting their career ahead of marriage or not marrying at all, experts said. Only 61 percent of Taiwanese women aged 30 to 34 were married in 2006, compared with 89 percent in 1980. Around 48 percent of working-age Taiwanese women hold jobs, a high percentage for Asia.

"In the past 10 years, Taiwanese women have advanced a lot, participating in politics and society, not just being a wife and mother," said Chen Man-Li, president of the National Alliance of Taiwan Women's Associations.

On Tuesday last week, Chow issued a statement: She is keeping her job.
By doing so, Chow would be the first Taiwanese first lady to hold a job, something that is also rare in Asia or other parts of the world. Chow's predecessors did not, including Wu Shu-chen, the wife of the current president, Chen Shui-bian, and Tseng Wen-hui, the wife of Lee Teng-hui, a former president. Wu is better known for her penchant for expensive jewelry and her indictment in an embezzlement scandal involving a discretionary presidential fund, while Tseng was rarely seen in public.

Taiwan's two other first ladies were also housewives, although Madame Chiang Kai-shek's diplomatic skills were recognized as helping the island maintain strong relations with the United States.

Two decades ago, many Taiwanese women were expected to quit working after marriage or childbirth, but times have changed, largely because of the ability of families to send their daughters as well as sons to college. For every 100 men studying for a bachelor's degree, there are around 105 women doing so. This perhaps explains why a large majority of women in various surveys last week supported Chow's decision. A smaller percentage of men backed her, but over all, about half of respondents have favored her maintaining her career.
By some measures of social status, Taiwanese women rank second in Asia, behind only Singapore, according to a recent government study on the number of female lawmakers, administrators, managers and professional workers as well as women's share of earned income.

With 34 female lawmakers now, or 30 percent of the total, Taiwan was well above the international average of 17.8 percent, 20.6 percent in China, 14.4 percent in South Korea and 9.4 percent in Japan, also exceeding the 16.8 percent in the United States, 18.2 percent in France and 19.5 percent in Britain, based on information from a recent survey by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Taiwan's vice president also happens to be a woman.

But the amount of attention focused on Chow's decision is partly a result of the reality that despite the signs of social progress, a certain amount of traditional thinking still binds Taiwan's women, especially continuing pressure to put family ahead of career. When elderly family members fall ill, for example, it is the wives, not husbands, who are expected to quit their jobs to take care of them.
"The reason for the declining marriage rate is not necessarily that women don't want to get married, but if they want to get a Ph.D. and leave family matters to her husband, would their husbands support this?" said Mei-Nu Yu, a board member for the Awakening Foundation, a Taiwan women's rights group, which issued a statement supporting Chow's decision. Some who delay marriage to pursue careers talk of difficulty in finding husbands later.

For many women who wrestle with such expectations and restrictions despite having successful careers, Chow, who declined to be interviewed, has struck a chord.

"She's a role model for women who want to have a career," said May Chang, an accountant for a multinational company who is in her late 30s. "Some people say a first lady is a public asset, but I don't think so. I think it's very important for her to have her career."

Few examples of first ladies who keep their jobs exist. Cherie Blair, who juggled being a barrister, mother and first lady while her husband, Tony Blair, was the British prime minister, was a rare example, although many current or former first ladies, including Hillary Clinton, used their position effectively to advance their causes.

Chow mania, meanwhile, is quickly spreading, with the public wanting to find out more about her life - everything from the period when she held down three jobs to put Ma through Harvard, to how it was mostly her, not Ma, who raised the couple's two daughters, to what kind of food she likes. A bakery that sells her favorite kind of chocolate cake has seen a jump in sales; so has a dumpling restaurant she frequented. The reason for the fascination is not only her newfound status, but her personality, experts said.

"She's not simply an attachment to her husband," Yu said. "All along she's been a career woman, doing her thing while he does his. At home, they have equal positions."

A graduate of the law school at New York University, Chow, 55, is known to be assertive, and she went about her own business during most of Ma's campaign. In front of a television audience on one rare occasion when she campaigned for Ma, Chow bluntly answered a question about him: "Whatever weak points husbands have, he has them all."

While taking a bow together at that appearance, she practically forced him to bend forward - a scene that television stations replayed constantly before and after the election.

Her casual attire - including no makeup and no jewelry - is not typical for someone who works at a bank, but it seems to fit her image as a down-to-earth kind of official's wife, and the public seems to like this. At a post-election party to thank supporters, however, she did wear a dress suit.

Some women believe that Chow could make a bigger difference if she were to quit her job and use her unpaid position as first lady to fight problems that women in Taiwan still face, including unequal pay, discrimination, sexual assault and rising domestic violence, as well as underrepresentation in programs for advanced degrees.

So far, there has been no clear indication that Chow is interested in these causes, although she has served on the board of a charity promoting juvenile mental health.

As far as Chow's routine goes, the only change she has agreed to is to stop taking the bus - in order to avoid inconveniencing other commuters and posing security headaches. In her statement, Chow defended her right to work, saying that her job would bring no conflicts, because she simply provides legal advice and is uninvolved in decision-making.

Chow did agree to consider quitting her job if it eventually poses problems for the bank or her husband.

And as of last Wednesday, a chauffeur has been driving her to work.