The Meaning of Second Homes to Middle-class Taiwanese Women a Feminist Perspective

Abstract

Second home ownership is becoming more common in Taiwan as living standards rise and accommodation demands change. In this study, we use 'second home' as another 'home' to understand middle-class women's experience of home in a different context. The association of 'home' with women and femininity is so commonplace that it is often considered natural. The 'masculinist' notion of home has excluded women's consideration of what an ideal home would be. By conducting interviews of ten middle-class women we found that their views reveal ambivalences, although second homes help release pressure from both outside and inside the home, and can satisfy their images of the ideal/perfect home, and affirm their social status. Through having some autonomy in decision making with regard to the use of finances in acquiring second homes, the middle-class women in this study fulfill their dreams of living in suburban homes. However, a deep-seated and seemingly 'natural' association is still implicated in second home choice and management to fulfill family needs. The second home is not necessarily a place possessed by women, but just another traditional home. Through this qualitative study, the voices of women, who make an effort to be liberated through their endeavors to reconstruct personal space and to deal with constraints, are heard.