Sibship Characteristics and Transition to First Marriage in Taiwan: Explaining Gender Asymmetries

Sociologists have long been interested in the effects of sibship structures. Although previous research generally focuses on the impacts of sibship characteristics on educational outcomes, these characteristics may also affect individuals?? decisions about marriage by shaping their resource availability, parental expectations, or social skills and contacts. Using a nationally representative sample from Taiwan, we examine how sibship size, birth-order rank, and sibship sex composition are associated with men??s and women??s transitions to first marriage. The analysis shows that men who have no male siblings tend to accelerate their rates of entering marriage. By contrast, women with more siblings or in earlier birth positions are likely to do the same. We argue that the findings for women reflect the influences of sibship structures on household resource allocation, whereas those for men have to do with the cultural emphasis on sons?? responsibility for carrying on the family lineage. Moreover, Chinese cultural norms that prescribe different roles for married sons and daughters account for the asymmetrical mechanisms revealed for men and women in Taiwan. Results from this study thus underscore the need to consider family norms and cultural contexts in explaining the transition to marriage.     

Growing Pains: Changes in Psychological Well-Being in Urban China

Social Indicators Research - Previous research sheds little light on changes in mental health conditions in former socialist countries that have undergone massive transformations. In this study, we...     

Jobs for Mothers: Married Women's Labor Force Reentry and Part-Time,Temporary Employment in Japan

This paper explains the increase in middle-aged women reentering the labor force in Japan and their concentration in part-time or temporary employment. Existing explanations attribute women's concentration in part-time employment too narrowly to supply or demand factors. In Japan, both the labor supply of middle-aged women and the demand for part-time workers have increased, but these conditions channel middle-aged women into part-time or temporary employment only when systematic barriers obstruct their access to full-time jobs. Because it plays an important role in women's employment decisions, the rigidity of standard, full-time employment needs greater attention in studies of nonstandard, atypical types of work.     

NATIONAL CONTEXTS AND DYNAMICS OF MARRIED WOMEN's EMPLOYMENT REENTRY: The Cases of Japan and Taiwan

Previous research has paid little attention to how the national context shapes women's work trajectories. In this study, I examine the rate of married women's labor force reentry in Japan and Taiwan, using event history data constructed from the 1995 Social Stratification and Social Mobility (SSM) Survey for the former and the 1996 Social Change (SC) Survey for the latter. The analysis reveals that Japanese women's timing of reentry reflects changes in their family roles, independent of the duration of work interruption. By contrast, the processes of Taiwanese women's employment return are less closely tied to family stages, but show patterns of duration dependence. These findings indicate that national contexts impact the dynamics of women's labor force reentry after marriage because of their differences in work–family conflict and the time sensitivity of the cost of nonemployment. These contextual differences also influence the effects of other determinants of women's rate of return, including education, husband's income potential, work commitment, and previous job experiences.