Shaping one's own destiny: Global economy, family, and women's struggle in the Taiwanese context

Abstract

This article compares and contrasts the experience of two working women as their lives were affected by Taiwan's economic restructuring in the late 1990s. Both women were in their thirties and unmarried. However, one woman's decision to remain single and return to school caused a major disagreement in her family, while the other's decision was respected by her family. Two factors are particularly instructive in explaining these differences. The first is the pattern of their labor market participation, which reflected the way in which each of their families was incorporated into Taiwan's economy and thus the structural constraints each family faced under the recent economic restructuring. This was further augmented by the issue of marriage. As marriage is viewed as part of a Taiwanese woman's destiny, these women had to find a culturally acceptable alternative in order for their decisions to be accepted by their families.