More than 4,000 Taiwan men sought help after being abused by wives last year, the Central News Agency said Sunday.

In 2009, 4,428 men called the family abuse hot line set up by the interior ministry to seek help, after being abused by their wives, up from 1,325 in 2002, it said.

'These men suffered verbal or physical abuse from their wives. One reason is that some women earn more money than men, so they play a dominant role at home and begin to curse or beat their husbands,' the agency quoted Chang Hsiu-yuan, a ministry official in charge of domestic violence, as saying.

'Thanks to campaigns to raise public awareness about gender equality, more and more men are willing to report abuse by their wives,' she said.

But compared to domestic violence reported by women, very few men report such abuse for fear of losing face.