A Critical Study on the Changing Perception of the Fertility Attitude in Taiwan, 1991-2011

• In Event: 136 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Attitudes about Beginning and End-of-life Issues

Abstract

Originally, having a son is a major issue in oriental traditional family. However it is said that the fertility attitude has changed dramatically among young generation in a revolution manner；especially in Taiwan contemporary society. Nonetheless, little empirical evidence has provided to verify this statement. In this study, I utilized data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS) conducted in 1991, 2001 and 2011, respectively samples of 2459, 1771 and 2111. The TSCS repeated the same array of questions of fertility attitude in decades because of the Chinese patriarchy society for thousand years with the conflict of gender equity mainstreaming nowadays. The results with analyzing data with χ², t-test and ANOVA ( with Scheffe) methods indicated that the difference of fertility attitude between men and women wasn’t significant in the data of 1991. However, they have been significant since 2001-2011. That’s to say that men still valued sons more than women did in the data of 2001 and 2011. Secondly, the differences of fertility attitude among different education backgrounds were significant as well in the data of 2001 and 2011, i.e., the more highly educated people, the more equal gender attitude. Moreover, the difference of fertility attitude between urban area and countryside is significant in the data of 2011, i.e., the non-urban people have more traditional patriarchy idea.
Keywords: gender equity, fertility attitude, patriarchy society

Author

• Winnie W. C. Wen, National Taiwan Normal University