The Employment Discontinuity of Married Women in Taiwan

Abstract

This article studies the determination of married women’s employment discontinuity in Taiwan. Many studies have demonstrated that a high proportion of married women leave their jobs because of marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth (MPB). This article suggests the concept of labour market segmentation be brought back into the study of women’s employment stability. Using nationwide sampling data from the 2001 Taiwan Social Change Survey, the article analyses how job status and sociocultural factors affect women’s various decisions to quit their job. By using multinomial logistic analysis of over 900 married women, the author discovers that job status of both wives and husbands, husbands’ ethnic background and gender-role attitudes have significant impacts on women’s reasons to quit. Labour market segmentation by gender significantly affects the employment stability of married women. The results indicate a complex decision-making process when married women struggle to hold onto their jobs in this East Asian society.