Changing gender roles and changes in family formation in Finland, India and east Asia

Stuart Basten1,2

Yu-Hua Chen3

1 KONE Postdoctoral Researcher, Väestöliitto2 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Social

Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford 3Associate Professor, Population and Gender Studies

Center, National Taiwan University

The ‘gender revolutions’

Contraceptive revolution

Educational revolution

Work revolution

Education

Female empowerment

Access to extra-household economic opportunities

Role in household decision making

Likelihood of contracepting

Knowledge of contraception

Opportunity cost of children

Desired number of children

Fertility rates

Negative relationships

• Education and fertility

• Income and fertility

• HDI and fertility

But an ‘incomplete’ revolution?

1. Incomplete ‘public’ revolutions

• In many settings:– Female education poorer– Discrimination at home and at work– Social and cultural barriers to empowerment– Underinvestment in female opportunities– Women’s value lower

• Often in negative feedback with poor economic growth and other development issues

Consequences

• High fertility and stalled fertility decline in many settings

• Incursions of women’s (reproductive) rights and opportunities

• Violence against women

• Sex selection bias– Abortions, infanticide– Squeeze on marriage

India

Source: Baochang Gu & Yong Cai. (2011). Fertility prospects in China. Expert Paper. No. 2011/14. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Population Division. United Nations.

2. Incomplete ‘private’ revolutions

• Even in the most developed countries, changes in women’s domestic roles have not caught up with changes in their public roles

• Opportunity costs of childbearing

Education revolution

– Korea: female tertiary enrolment rose from 20% in 1975 to 81% in 2005 (Tsuya et al. 2009)

Taiwan, 2009

Source: Manpower Survey Statistics, DGBAS, Executive Yuan.

Participation in labour force

• New and growing opportunities– ‘The life options of young women have widened’

(Rindfuss et al. 2004)

• Income inequality decreasing• Highly competitive economies and

governments – high productivity and low wages– ‘Relatively unforgiving of the divided loyalties

inherent in the effort to combine child-raising with working’ (Jones et al. 2009)

The ‘package’ of marital roles

• Childbearing and rearing• Care for the elderly• The watchful gaze of the ‘in-laws’• Responsibility for educational success of

children– Including extra-curricular activities and ‘cram’

schools

• Heavy household task load• Possible co-residence with parents-in-law

Reflected in trends

Japan - context

• Source: Japan Time Use Survey 2005

A perfect storm?

• Patriarchal, patrilineal tradition• Women expected to have very different

gendered roles in public and in private• History of age gap between husband and

wife• Highly educated women: opportunity costs

at breaking point• Context for cross-border marriages?

– MEN want to get married – but just not to Taiwanese women (and vice versa)

Men – crucial to the future

• Do we ‘downgrade’ women, or ‘update’ men?• No question!• The role of men in shaping the future of gender

roles and relations in Taiwan is tremendous• An under-researched topic world wide

Population policy, fertility and gender equity

• Question the fundamental link between population policy and fertility

• Rather familiar assumptions on spending on family policy and child benefit and link to increased fertility (many studies)

• But is that the only answer?

y = 0.022x + 0.8304R² = 0.4586

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

2.00

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

TF

R

Time spent on domestic/childcare duties as % of women

Source: EUROSTAT Harmonised Time Use surveys, EUROSTAT fertility database, Asia time use surveys, UN World Population Prospects 2010, Taiwan DGBAS

Italy and Spain

Developed East Asia

CEE

Scandinavia

(Germany)

NW EuropeFrance

(Latvia)

Micro-level evidence from FinlandD

esir

ed f

amil

y si

ze

Gender equity index

Study of Finnish males at Parity 0 and 1.Desired family size and views on gender equity(Division of household/childcare tasks, women in public sphere etc)

Traditional Egalitarian

0

1

2

3

4

5

Source: (Rotkirch, Basten and Mietinnen 2010)

Micro-level evidence from FinlandD

esir

ed f

amil

y si

ze

Gender equity index

Traditional Egalitarian

0

1

2

3

4

5

‘Male breadwinner’

model

‘Househusband’ model

‘Equal sharing’ model

‘Half-and-half’ model

Source: (Rotkirch, Basten and Mietinnen 2010)

Extrapolate up to national level?D

esir

ed f

amil

y si

ze

Gender equity index

Traditional Egalitarian

0

1

2

3

4

5

Yemen, Niger, Afghanistan

Scandinavia

NW EuropeEast Asia, S and E

EuropeGENDER EQUITY

MISMATCH

So what to do?

• Clearly – women’s work should be made more compatible with childbearing

• Return to subsidy vs. reform

• Broader social change required

• Try to usher in more equal responsibilities between women and men with respect to childcare and housework

Finland, India and East Asia?

• Gender is a thread that runs through partnership- and family formation in each of these regions– Attitudes towards gender equity among men – Women [and men] struggling to reconcile

work and family– Fundamental questions concerning gender

roles