Intergenerational Care Supports and Married Women’s Employment in Korea and Taiwan

• In Event: 4367 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 9. Occupation and Work

Abstract

This study is to explain different age patterns of married women employment rates in Korea and Taiwan by intergenerational supports from extended family. Women’s employment rates of Korea and Taiwan may similar in their total average rates, but the patterns by age are clearly different. While Korean women’s employment rates by age show M-curve which indicates career disruption due to care duty, Taiwanese women’s employment rates by age do not show M-curve but continually decreases from the highest point. How can we explain these differences? Jung and his colleagues (2012) suggested novel hypotheses focusing on different family structures of Korea and Taiwan and the effects of extended family support. They suggest that Taiwanese working mothers may receive more care supports from their co-residing parents or parents-in-law than Korean working mothers, and it could reduce care burdens of Taiwanese women and help them to stay in labor market in child-rearing age. This research is to empirically test the hypotheses. Data are drawn from East Asian Social Survey 2006 family module. This study uses samples of Korean (n = 456) and Taiwanese (n = 425) married women. Results show that hypotheses on the directions of intergenerational support effects are half supported. Giving care supports decreases and giving financial supports increases the odds of married women’s employment in Korea and Taiwan as expected, but neither receiving care supports nor receiving financial supports show statistically significant effects on married women’s employment. Neither main effects of intergenerational supports nor interaction effects of care or financial supports by country explain differences between patterns of married women’s employment in Korea and Taiwan. Different age patterns of predicted probabilities on married women’s employment in Korea and Taiwan have not changed substantially across different models. Further studies are required to study dynamics inside of intergenerational co-residence to understand when and how extended family structure work as resources in East Asian contexts, which is a main contribution of this research.

Author

• Jina Lee, The University of Arizona