The Linkage Between Work and Family: Female's Employment Patterns in Three Chinese Societies.

This article examines the employment pattern of married female in Taiwan, Tianjin and Shanghai, China. The significant rise of female's labor force participation in recent decades has become a focal topic worldwide. Outside of western industrialized nations, female's employment has been examined from its overall demographic trend, its contribution to the economic development, factors accounted for the pattern variation as well as its effects on family relations. Marriage and childbearing, in both western and non-western worlds, are repeatedly shown to be two major stages which affect female's labor force continuity. Females typically work before marriage and withdraw from the job market at marriage or at childbirth. However, the typical M-shaped employment pattern which has been prevalent in some western societies is not necessarily apparent in Asian countries like Taiwan. Generally speaking, female's personal resources, family's economic need, possible constraint from the social norm and the larger social context or economic structure have been documented to be factors affecting female's employment patterns. Higher educated females are less likely to leave the labor market due to the higher human capital as well as greater opportunity cost when conflict occurs at the marriage or childbearing stage.