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

This paper examines female’s employment patterns across three consecutive family life stages with an attempt to ascertain the possible impact of marriage and childbirth on female’s employment behaviors. Comparable data sets of Taiwan, Tianjin, and Shanghai are used to compare female’s family and work situations. It is assumed that while cultural homogeneity leads to similar changes in the family system, different political and economic development may produce different outcomes on female’s employment patterns. The analysis focuses on how marriage and childbirth as most critical family life stages affect female’s employment. The result shows that despite the difference between the continuous employment pattern of Mainland Chinese females and the 40% withdrawal after marriage and childbirth of Taiwanese females, all females act according to the external demands of the macro and the micro social structure in her employment patterns. Cohort variations clearly indicate that females respond to the emergence of new employment opportunity, especially in Taiwan and Tianjin. The shift from formal to informal employment at various family stages plays an important adjusting function for females facing the challenge from the incompatibility of work and family roles. Consistent with the course of economic development in Taiwan and the economic reform in Mainland China, females tend to adopt flexible strategy to fulfill their economic contribution by participating in either the formal or the informal work sector.