Changing gender roles and changes in family formation in Finland, India and east Asia Stuart Basten...
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Transcript of Changing gender roles and changes in family formation in Finland, India and east Asia Stuart Basten...
Changing gender roles and changes in family formation in Finland, India and east Asia
Stuart Basten1,2
Yu-Hua Chen3
1 KONE Postdoctoral Researcher, Väestöliitto2 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Social
Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford 3Associate Professor, Population and Gender Studies
Center, National Taiwan University
Education
Female empowerment
Access to extra-household economic opportunities
Role in household decision making
Likelihood of contracepting
Knowledge of contraception
Opportunity cost of children
Desired number of children
Fertility rates
1. Incomplete ‘public’ revolutions
• In many settings:– Female education poorer– Discrimination at home and at work– Social and cultural barriers to empowerment– Underinvestment in female opportunities– Women’s value lower
• Often in negative feedback with poor economic growth and other development issues
Consequences
• High fertility and stalled fertility decline in many settings
• Incursions of women’s (reproductive) rights and opportunities
• Violence against women
• Sex selection bias– Abortions, infanticide– Squeeze on marriage
Source: Baochang Gu & Yong Cai. (2011). Fertility prospects in China. Expert Paper. No. 2011/14. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Population Division. United Nations.
2. Incomplete ‘private’ revolutions
• Even in the most developed countries, changes in women’s domestic roles have not caught up with changes in their public roles
• Opportunity costs of childbearing
Education revolution
– Korea: female tertiary enrolment rose from 20% in 1975 to 81% in 2005 (Tsuya et al. 2009)
Taiwan, 2009
Source: Manpower Survey Statistics, DGBAS, Executive Yuan.
Participation in labour force
• New and growing opportunities– ‘The life options of young women have widened’
(Rindfuss et al. 2004)
• Income inequality decreasing• Highly competitive economies and
governments – high productivity and low wages– ‘Relatively unforgiving of the divided loyalties
inherent in the effort to combine child-raising with working’ (Jones et al. 2009)
The ‘package’ of marital roles
• Childbearing and rearing• Care for the elderly• The watchful gaze of the ‘in-laws’• Responsibility for educational success of
children– Including extra-curricular activities and ‘cram’
schools
• Heavy household task load• Possible co-residence with parents-in-law
A perfect storm?
• Patriarchal, patrilineal tradition• Women expected to have very different
gendered roles in public and in private• History of age gap between husband and
wife• Highly educated women: opportunity costs
at breaking point• Context for cross-border marriages?
– MEN want to get married – but just not to Taiwanese women (and vice versa)
Men – crucial to the future
• Do we ‘downgrade’ women, or ‘update’ men?• No question!• The role of men in shaping the future of gender
roles and relations in Taiwan is tremendous• An under-researched topic world wide
Population policy, fertility and gender equity
• Question the fundamental link between population policy and fertility
• Rather familiar assumptions on spending on family policy and child benefit and link to increased fertility (many studies)
• But is that the only answer?
y = 0.022x + 0.8304R² = 0.4586
0.80
1.00
1.20
1.40
1.60
1.80
2.00
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
TF
R
Time spent on domestic/childcare duties as % of women
Source: EUROSTAT Harmonised Time Use surveys, EUROSTAT fertility database, Asia time use surveys, UN World Population Prospects 2010, Taiwan DGBAS
Italy and Spain
Developed East Asia
CEE
Scandinavia
(Germany)
NW EuropeFrance
(Latvia)
Micro-level evidence from FinlandD
esir
ed f
amil
y si
ze
Gender equity index
Study of Finnish males at Parity 0 and 1.Desired family size and views on gender equity(Division of household/childcare tasks, women in public sphere etc)
Traditional Egalitarian
0
1
2
3
4
5
Source: (Rotkirch, Basten and Mietinnen 2010)
Micro-level evidence from FinlandD
esir
ed f
amil
y si
ze
Gender equity index
Traditional Egalitarian
0
1
2
3
4
5
‘Male breadwinner’
model
‘Househusband’ model
‘Equal sharing’ model
‘Half-and-half’ model
Source: (Rotkirch, Basten and Mietinnen 2010)
Extrapolate up to national level?D
esir
ed f
amil
y si
ze
Gender equity index
Traditional Egalitarian
0
1
2
3
4
5
Yemen, Niger, Afghanistan
Scandinavia
NW EuropeEast Asia, S and E
EuropeGENDER EQUITY
MISMATCH
So what to do?
• Clearly – women’s work should be made more compatible with childbearing
• Return to subsidy vs. reform
• Broader social change required
• Try to usher in more equal responsibilities between women and men with respect to childcare and housework