The Changing Pattern of Educational Differentials in Divorce in the Context of Gender Egalitarianization: The Case of Taiwan

Regarding educational differentials in divorce, similar trends have been reported across countries. Some report increasing educational differentials, while others identify an educational crossover pattern. The commonality is that education seems to play a role of stabilizing marriage more than ever before. Using data from the Women??s Marriage, Fertility, and Employment Survey, this study investigates the case of Taiwan by portraying the changing pattern of women??s educational differentials in divorce. There are three major findings. First, among previous marriage cohorts, women with relatively higher levels of formal education are significantly more likely to divorce. Second, the marital-dissolution rates for less educated women are rising faster than the corresponding rates for women with more education. Third, this trend does not stop at the catch-up point and eventually leads to a reversal in the association between education and divorce from positive to negative. In short, such educational differentials in divorce vary dramatically across marriage cohorts. A pattern of educational crossover in divorce has been displayed during the rapid social change in Taiwan. Other than William Goode??s argument raised a half-century ago, the marriage model transformation from specialization toward symmetry in the context of gender egalitarianization has to be taken into consideration in order to obtain a full understanding of the phenomenon.     

Gender-specific labor market conditions and family formation

Slack labor market conditions for women relative to men increase the marriage rate in the USA. This paper examines the long-term consequences of such marriages. Despite the significant effect on marriage timing, labor market conditions experienced in youth do not affect the probability that a woman will marry by the age of 30. Further, labor market conditions at the time of marriage are uncorrelated with the probability of divorce, spouses?? characteristics, or the number of children. These findings suggest that labor market fluctuations induce only intertemporal adjustments for marriage timing without affecting reservation match quality or total fertility.     

Socio-economic correlates of fecundability in a sample of taiwanese women

Estimates of fecundability (monthly probability of conception) in the absence of contraception are derived from the frequency distribution of conceptive delays immediately following marriage, reported by 2,443 married women aged 20 to 39 included in the Taichung (Taiwan) Intensive Fertility Survey of 1962. Average fecundability of women is positively associated with their socio-economic status. These differentials are not accounted for by differences among socio-economic groups with respect to memory and truncation biases (associated with the marriage duration), wife’s age at marriage, or unreported premarital conceptions. A Multiple Classification Analysis suggests that among the socio-economic characteristics, husband’s education, rural background, and modern family type are the more important predictors of fecundability. The importance of genetic factors as opposed to cultural factors in producing these socio-economic differences in fecundability can not be evaluated systematically. Moreover, the relation of a couple’s privacy, their attitude toward family building, and patterns of mate selection to their socioeconomic status would have to be taken into account before the differences in fecundability could be attributed to factors such as nutrition, health, or infections which might directly influence their physiological ability to conceive.     

家庭因素对性别工资差异的影响——基于CFPS数据的实证分析

随着职业性别隔离现象不断减少、男女受教育水平和教育收益率的逐步收敛,人力资本、职业和行业分布已经无法解释我国性别工资差异不断扩大的趋势。从家庭出发,考察婚姻、家务劳动分工和子女这些典型的家庭特征因素对性别工资差异的影响,运用2016年CFPS数据,在解决内生性问题的条件下,研究结果表明:婚姻通过增加女性家务劳动时间和子女间接影响女性工资,家务劳动时间和母亲身份对女性工资率具有显著的惩罚效应,女性平均每周承担家务劳动17小时,这导致其周工资率减少34%,子女降低母亲8.5%的周工资率;相对于未婚女性,已婚女性每周多做7小时家务,这降低了她们14%的周工资率。男性则存在婚姻溢价效应。Oaxaca分解也显示,家庭特征,尤其是家务劳动时间,是性别歧视之外导致性别工资差距的主要原因。本文按收入阶层的异质性分析表明,家庭特征可能引起低收入阶层更大的性别工资差异。本文的分析还显示,家务劳动对男性和女性具有门槛效应,且阈值位于10.5小时左右。     

婚姻市场、农业剩余与光棍分布--一个理解农村光棍问题的中观机制

在婚姻市场渗透下,中西部农村家庭继替具有市场参与性特征：婚姻市场竞争过程形塑出以竞争力为指标的婚姻梯队序列,在优势梯队实现的家庭继替具有向上社会流动的特征,梯队末端则呈现为底层沦陷;农村男性青年在婚姻梯队序列所处的位置取决于其家庭的资源积聚方式、能力和分配方式。调查发现末端梯队集中分布于农业剩余稀薄村庄,其内在机理是农业剩余稀薄通过形塑家庭劳动力的不合理配置与以年轻人为主体的资源积聚方式和向家庭日常生活基本需要进行倾斜的资源分配方式削弱了男性青年的婚姻市场竞争力,其现象表征是扎堆分布的光棍。     

Entry into marriage and parenthood by young men and women: The influence of family background

We investigate the influence of family background on early entry into marriage and parenthood among white, Hispanic, and black men and women ages 14 to 22 in the first (1979) wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Family background is highly associated with early entry into marriage for whites of both genders and female Hispanics and also with early entry into parenthood for all groups except black males. Large group differences in family characteristics explain most of the difference between white and Hispanic women in early marriage and parenthood and about half the difference in early parenthood between black and white women but do not explain the observed variations among other race-gender groups.     

Women are key players in the economies of East and Southeast Asia

In 1996, the East-West Center's Program on Population investigated the links between population change and economic growth in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. This document discusses the findings pertaining to women's changing marriage and childbearing patterns, education attainment, and labor force participation as well as changes in family life. In eastern and southeastern Asia, women are delaying marriage and having fewer children as a result of their overwhelming acceptance of modern contraception. Concurrently, women's secondary school enrollment has increased dramatically since 1960, and women have accounted for steadily increasing proportions of total labor force growth. Economic development has led to fewer women employed in agriculture and more in clerical positions. Women continue to be marginalized in low-paying manufacturing jobs and to lose these jobs more frequently than do men. Women's labor force participation continues to be dependent upon their child care responsibilities, but women are beginning to combine both activities with the help of live-in grandparents. Women have made an important contribution to economic growth in Asia. Policies should address job discrimination against married women, wage discrimination, the problems faced by young women who leave home for employment in the manufacturing and service sectors, and the lack of child care facilities.     

Sibship size and education in South Africa: Black–White variations

Recent studies suggest that the generally observed negative sibship size effect on education is much less consistent in developing nations. Using data from a national survey in the early 1990s, this study assesses the effect of number of siblings on education in South Africa for two major population groups with distinctive cultural customs, Whites and Blacks. A negative effect exists for Whites, who have adopted a Western nuclear family system, whereas no effect is shown for Blacks, whose family life operates under extended family arrangements. Several sensitivity analyses suggest that the lack of a sibship size effect for Blacks can be partly explained by their extended family arrangements, in which the responsibilities and financial costs of raising children are shared across a wide circle of relatives. The study further addresses the longstanding debate as to whether the link between sibship size and education is contaminated by endogeneity and a confounding birth order effect. Results suggest that the sibship size effect is not an artifact of the interactive birth order effect. However, the observed negative effect for Whites tends to be exaggerated by endogenous factors – mostly likely parental quality–quantity calculation – a pattern found in several other industrialized societies that conform to western values of childbearing.     

Opportunities to Meet: Occupational Education and Marriage Formation in Young Adulthood

Explanations for the positive association between education and marriage in the United States emphasize the economic and cultural attractiveness of having a college degree in the marriage market. However, educational attainment may also shape the opportunities that men and women have to meet other college-educated partners, particularly in contexts with significant educational stratification. We focus on work—and the social ties that it supports—and consider whether the educational composition of occupations is important for marriage formation during young adulthood. Employing discrete-time event-history methods using the NLSY-97, we find that occupational education is positively associated with transitioning to first marriage and with marrying a college-educated partner for women but not for men. Moreover, occupational education is positively associated with marriage over cohabitation as a first union for women. Our findings call attention to an unexplored, indirect link between education and marriage that, we argue, offers insight into why college-educated women in the United States enjoy better marriage prospects.     

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Women’s Progress for Men’s Gain? Gender-Specific Changes in the Return to Education as Measured by Family Standard of Living, 1990 to 2009–2011</Emphasis>

This study investigates gender-specific changes in the total financial return to education among persons of prime working ages (35–44 years) using U.S. Census data from 1990 and 2000, and the 2009–2011 American Community Survey. We define the total financial return to education as the family standard of living as measured by family income adjusted for family size. Our results indicate that women experienced significant progress in educational attainment and labor market outcomes over this time period. Ironically, married women’s progress in education and personal earnings has led to greater improvement in the family standard of living for married men than for women themselves. Gender-specific changes in assortative mating are mostly responsible for this paradoxical trend. Because the number of highly educated women exceeds the number of highly educated men in the marriage market, the likelihood of educational marrying up has substantially increased for men over time while women’s likelihood has decreased. Sensitivity analyses show that the greater improvement in the family standard of living for men than for women is not limited to prime working-age persons but is also evident in the general population. Consequently, women’s return to education through marriage declined while men’s financial gain through marriage increased considerably.     

Age at marriage is rising for Asian women and men,according to new data

The social transformations in Asia are described: delayed age at marriage and the proportions marrying. Policy implications are ascertained. The norm for female age at marriage has risen from 15 years to 17-18 years in south Asia, and from 18 years to 24 years and older in east Asia. Men's marriage age has also risen but not as much. Concurrent changes have occurred with fertility declines and small family sizes and lower population growth, with changing roles for women, and with emergent youth subcultures and increased prevalence of premarital sexual behavior. The number of singles is rising and expected to continue to rise. Examples are given of marriage age changes for Nepal and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Korea, and regional totals. Southeast Asian countries experienced less dramatic changes, and changes primarily in the 20-24 year old group (from 30% to 74% of single women). Change for men has been less regular and with less magnitude. In Southeast Asia, the rise in marriage age for men has risen only 1-2 years compared with women. East Asia patterns vary by country, i.e., South Korean increases of 6 years, Taiwanese increases of 4 years, and 2 years in Japan. Single males have been common in South and Southeast Asia, while in East Asia married male teens 25 years are rare. Marriage timing for men is not as closely associated as for women with social and cultural change. Downturns for men follow momentous, temporary disruptions such as happen during wars and periods of migration, while women's patterns are more reflective of structural change. The trend for never marrying is on the increase, particularly for men in Japan (1.1% in the 1920s to 18% in the early 1980s for men 50 years). Women not ever marrying are increasing in Thailand, Bangladesh, and Hong Kong. Never marrying is common in urban or educated populations, i.e., Singapore, Thailand, and Philippines. The implications are a longer gap between successive generations and a shorter period of exposure to risk of conception. Research findings have shown that a 1 year delay in age at 1st marriage reduces fertility by 20% of a child. Schooling delays marriage age as well as marriage laws, but structural and economic changes may be more important than policy changes. Policies affect the status of women and opportunities.     

同胞数量与教育获得的性别差异

同胞数量对教育获得的影响存在性别差异，对女性影响较大，对男性没有统计上的影响。在国家强调教育公平的时期，同胞效应的性别差异较小；在强调效率的时期，性别差异较大。在农村，同胞效应的性别差异要高于城镇。从同胞构成来看，对女性教育获得影响最大的是弟的数量。研究表明，同胞效应产生的主要原因是家庭预算约束和性别偏好。     

Do fertility transitions influence infant mortality declines? Evidence from early modern Germany

The timing and sequencing of fertility transitions and early-life mortality declines in historical Western societies indicate that reductions in sibship (number of siblings) may have contributed to improvements in infant health. Surprisingly, however, this demographic relationship has received little attention in empirical research. We outline the difficulties associated with establishing the effect of sibship on infant mortality and discuss the inherent bias associated with conventional empirical approaches. We offer a solution that permits an empirical test of this relationship while accounting for reverse causality and potential omitted variable bias. Our approach is illustrated by evaluating the causal impact of family size on infant mortality using genealogical data from 13 German parishes spanning the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Overall, our findings do not support the hypothesis that declining fertility led to increased infant survival probabilities in historical populations.     

The Marriage Wealth Premium Revisited: Gender Disparities and Within-Individual Changes in Personal Wealth in Germany

This study examines the association between marriage and economic wealth of women and men. Going beyond previous research that focused on household wealth, I examine personal wealth, which allows identifying gender disparities in the association between marriage and wealth. Using unique data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, and 2012), I apply random-effects and fixed-effects regression models to test my expectations. I find that both women and men experience substantial marriage wealth premiums not only in household wealth but also in personal wealth. However, I do not find consistent evidence for gender disparities in these general marriage premiums. Additional analyses indicate, however, that women’s marriage premiums are substantially lower than men’s premiums in older cohorts and when only nonhousing wealth is considered. Overall, this study provides new evidence that women and men gain unequally in their wealth attainment through marriage.     

找回家庭：对农村单身现象的再解释——对赣南茶村的大龄未婚男青年的分析

本文延承布迪厄的学术遗产,通过对茶村大龄未婚男青年进行分析后指出,家庭不仅构成了婚姻生活的重要场域,同时亦对婚姻本身产生了重要影响：当婚姻由家族事件变成家庭事件时,它由一个“公共事件”转变成“私密事件”,他人对于族人婚姻的关注与贡献也急剧降低;“家风”作为婚姻市场上的道德要价,对婚姻双方的社区道德和口碑提出了要求;当男青年的家庭结构不完整或经济实力不济,这将使得男性在婚姻市场上无法获得女方的青睐。     

Racial-Ethnic Differences in U.S. Married Women’s and Men’s Housework

Married women continue to spend more time doing housework than men and economic resources influence women’s housework more strongly than men’s. To explain this, gender theorists point to how gender figures into identities, family interactions, and societal norms and opportunity structures. The extent of this configuration varies culturally and, in the United States, by race-ethnicity because of how race-ethnicity conditions access to resources and influences gender relations within marriages. Housework levels and gender differences may be lower in Black married couples compared to other couples because of Black women’s higher historical levels of employment and consequently long-standing need to balance work and family responsibilities. Race-ethnicity also likely conditions the symbolic meaning and thus association of economic resources and housework. We use pooled time diary data from the 2003 to 2007 American Time Use Study from 26,795 married women and men to investigate how and why race-ethnicity influences housework. Our results indicate Hispanic and Asian women do more cooking and cleaning compared with White and Black women and the inverse relationship between women’s earnings and housework is steeper for Hispanic women compared with other women. We find no evidence that married Black men devote more time to housework than White men, either core or occasional, unlike earlier studies.     

新型城镇化背景下城乡妇女家庭地位的比较——基于兰州市妇女社会地位的调查

新型城镇化的核心是人口的城镇化,农村妇女家庭地位的高低不仅可以反映农村城镇化水平,更代表了社会的文明程度。本文充分利用问卷调查数据,从“家庭资源的占有及支配”、“个人事务的自主决策权”、“夫妻在家庭中实权比较’’及“妇女对家庭事务决策权的分享’’四方面对城乡妇女家庭地位进行了全面比较,在此基础上,借助“资源假说”理论和“文化规范论”的观点,从资源和文化两个维度分析差异形成的原因,最后提出对策建议以切实提高兰州市农村妇女的家庭地位。     

The new marriage law and planned birth]

The New Marriage Law was passed during the Fifth National People's Congress. It raised the minimum marriage age from 20 years for men and 18 years for women stipulated by the Old Marriage Law to 22 years for men and 20 years for women. It also differs from the Old Marriage Law in that it strengthens its encouragement of late marriage, late births and birth control, emphasizes that birth planning is the duty of both husband and wife, and prohibits marriage of collateral blood relations within 3 generations (the Old Marriage Law's standard was "to follow custom"). A third of the provisions of the New Marriage Law concern family planning, of which the first 3 clauses are the most important: 1) To set guidelines for the relationship between marriage and family: the New Marriage Law is concerned with not just the family, but also marriage and birth and expects all citizens to comply with and protect these standards. 2) To implement freedom in marriage--equality for men and women; to protect the rights of women, children, and the aged; to implement planned birth. 3) To prohibit any action that prevents freedom of marriage, such as marriage on a mercenary basis and to prohibit financial profit from marriages. Other clauses include: 1) direct blood relations and victims of leprosy or other diseases determined unmarriageable by the medical profession are prohibited from marriage; 2) after marriage registration and with the mutual agreement of both parties, either partner can become a member of the other's family; children can take either parent's surname; both partners have mutual rights of inheritance, as do parents and children. In Heilungjiang Province, data from September 1980 show that 87.5% of its fertile women used contraceptives. From January to September 1980 85.6% married late; the rate of applications for One Child Certificates was 80%. By 1979 the rate of natural population increase was 10.14/1000.     

Cohabiting partners’ economic circumstances and marriage

Past studies of the transition to marriage generally have relied on information about only one individual or have attempted to measure characteristics of potential spouses indirectly. Drawing on data from the two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), we examine the effects of economic circumstances of both partners in cohabiting unions on the transition to marriage. Focusing on both partners in a relationship affords a more direct test of the relative importance of men’s versus women s economic circumstances. Our findings suggest that only the male partner’s economic resources affect the transition to marriage, with positive economic situations accelerating marriage and deterring separation. Our results imply that despite trends toward egalitarian gender-role attitudes and increasing income provision among women, cohabiting men s economic circumstances carry far more weight than women’s in marriage formation.     

Barriers to contraceptive use among Pakistani couples

Despite the existence of a family planning program in Pakistan since 1965 and widespread knowledge among Pakistanis about contraception, there is a high level of unmet need for family planning. One recent survey found that while 53% of married women express the desire to avoid pregnancy, less than 20% use contraception. A recent Population Council study conducted in urban and rural areas of Punjab province investigated personal beliefs, family circumstances, social norms, and gender relations among 1310 married women and 554 of their husbands. The unmet need for contraception was highest among women over age 30 years, those with more living children, less educated women, and women living in rural areas. The study found that while most Pakistanis approve of family planning, obstacles to contraceptive use exist in most marriages. 97% of respondents who wanted another child wished for a boy. That preference for sons influences contraceptive use behavior. The fear of social disapproval of contraceptive use, perceived opposition from in-laws and husbands, and fear of health side effects and divine punishment were major reasons identified against contraceptive use. Female contraceptive users were more autonomous and likely to make domestic decisions without consulting their husbands, while husbands defer to social and cultural norms.