Hong, C. H. (2016, June). Breadwinner
vs. caretaker: The gender power structures of family culture in Taiwan focusing
on gender-generation interaction effect and comparing with neighboring East
Asia countries. Paper presented at Centre for
Research on Families and Relationships 5th International Conference:
Unequal Family and Relationships Held
by Centre for Research on Families and
Relationships (CRFR), Edinburgh, Engliand.
Abstract:
Taiwan
is one of the lowest fertility countries in the world. Furthermore, East Asia
countries are all in the last group in worldwide fertility ranking from 1980s
(Central Intelligence Agency United State of America, 2016; Chen, Chen, Hsiao,
Chen, & Zhang, 2012). However, this situation is not a coincidence which
could be hypothesized that the combination of high gender equity in
individual-oriented institutions (ex: education and market employment) with
only traditional gender equity (male breadwinner model) in family-oriented
institutions (particularly the family) operates lower fertility (McDonald,
2002). East Asia countries are facing this dramatic social change. Many modern
problems seem like economy issues, however, it is rooted in cultures
incompatible. Understanding traditional family culture is important for facing
social change in Taiwan (Chu & Chang, 2001). Therefore, this study aims to investigate the gender power structures
of family culture in Taiwan comparing with neighboring East Asia countries (China,
Japan and South Korea).
The method of this study used two longitudinal surveys,
“Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS)” in 2006 conducted by National Science
Council of Taiwan and "East Asian Social Survey (EASS)" which
incorporated data from China, Japan and South Korea and conducted by the East
Asian Social Survey Data
Archive, comparing gender power structure (male breadwinner vs. female
caretaker) family culture among Taiwan comparing
with neighboring East Asia countries (China, Japan and South Korea). This study
focused on 2 research questions: 1. How does Taiwanese gender power structure family culture being compared with neighboring East Asia countries (China,
Japan and South Korea)? 2. What does the
gender power structure family culture in Taiwan being analyzed
by gender-generation interaction effect? In the questionnaire, the item “A
husband’s job is to earn money; a wife’s job is to look after the home and
family.” represents for the concept of gender power structure (male breadwinner and female
caretaker) family culture. The sample is 9045 adults of 4187 males
and 4858 females from 19-92 years old cross China, Japan, South Korea and
Taiwan.
The
result shows that East Asia countries (China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) still
agree with the gender power structure of
family culture that male are breadwinner and female are caretaker. Comparing to
other neighboring countries, Taiwanese significantly more agree with the gender
power structure of family culture than Japanese and Korean, but no difference
with China. More than half sample agreed with the gender power structure of
family culture. This result indicates that male breadwinner and female
caretaker is still the gender power structure of family culture for Taiwanese
and East Asia countries. This might be one of the explanations of low fertility
in East Asia countries.
Furthermore,
the result focused on Taiwan, gender and
generation both related with the gender power structure of family culture. The
gender power structure of family culture is significant different when the
interaction effects of gender and generation. The general trend of agreement
toward gender power structure of family culture declined with time. However,
generation born after generation 5 th 1961 have much more different
agreement with the gender power structure of family culture between genders.
For the generation 5 th and 6th born between 1961-1970
and 1971-1980, male hold the attitude towards agreement and female towards
disagreement. Although male and female were both toward disagreement for the
generation 7 th born after 1981, the difference agreement between
genders even became bigger. This result indicates younger Taiwanese generations
facing more family culture conflicts of gender power structure between genders.
There might be some potential factors of social change which impact generation
5 th, 6th and 7th born after 1961.
The
contrasting views regarding the gender power structure of family culture
between genders and generations in Taiwan may be a potential source of family
conflict, not only for low fertility but also for modern problems of social
change. Therefore such differences should be acknowledged, especially the
potential factors of social change for generation 5 th, 6th
and 7th born after 1961. More efforts are needed to better
understand and resolve the issue for Taiwan in the future.
Keywords: Gender power structure, Family culture, Esat Asia
Acknowledgement:
The data for this (secondary)
analysis was provided by the Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS) and East Asian
Social Survey Data Archive (EASSDA).
The author wishes to acknowledge the help of Dr. Man-Yee Kan
in commenting on an early draft of this article while sponsor the author as an
academic visitor at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford.
http://www.crfr.ac.uk/assets/Cheng-Huei-Hong.pdf
