The Effect of Premarital Employment on First Marriage Timing for Married Women in Taiwan

• In Event: 054 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 13. Marital Timing and Intermarriage

Abstract

This study explores how premarital employment opportunities affect first marriage timing among married women in Taiwanese society from 1946 to 1990. Data from the 2010 Women’s Marriage, Fertility and Employment Survey in Taiwan are examined using ordinary least squares regression analyses for the whole respondents and further stratified by the three birth cohorts. The study considers the main sample of 12,249 female married respondents in order to explore the general effect of their work status on their timing of marriage. The subsample of 10,092 premarital workers was used to assess what specific characteristics of employment were most associated with their timing of marriage. In this study, five features of female premarital employment were examined to determine if they contribute to delayed marriage timing. After controlling women’s educational attainment and their mismatch with their husbands’ educational attainment, the results showed that women’s premarital employment affects their first marriage timing and some characteristics of female premarital employment—formal work status, work duration, urban area, governmental paid jobs, and some occupational tracks—consistently appear to delay marriage timing for the whole respondents. Besides, formal work status appeared greater magnitudes for later cohorts to delay their marriage timing.

Authors

• Mei-Fen Tsai, University of Utah

• Rebecca L. Utz, University of Utah