Sexual Stratification: The Other Side of "Growth with Equity" in East Asia

Abstract

This paper explores changes in womens status in postwar Taiwan with a focus on the perpetuation and even intensification of the traditional system of sexual stratification with rapid economic development. Using data primarily from northern Taiwan trends in inequality between sons and daughters in the 1960-78 period were examined with respect to 4 socioeconomic resources (education occupation income and property) and 3 areas of personal autonomy ( job selection residence and control of income). The data suggest that the postwar period intensified differences between sons and daughters in Taiwan in personal autonomy and the possession of socioeconomic resources. The central agents in this process were the parents themselves. They often required daughters to leave school early work at low status and poorly paying jobs and send large remittances to their parents. Parents used these remittances to finance higher education for their sons thus securing their own futures. These findings suggest that industrial capitalism has provided new means (education and jobs) for parents to use old tools (sex-differentiated intergenerational contracts) to exacerbate hierarchies based on sexual inequality. It is concluded that policymakers should direct more attention to the importance of womens status. Despite the shortterm benefits the traditional family system has provided for economic development it exerts an upward pressure on fertility and leads to the underutilization of womens labor power.