CHAPTER 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
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in 1963 and 1991, Marsh found that the percentages had not greatly changed, but some of the reasons had. In 1963, answers were linked to men’s elitism, interaction with kin, and living with a married son. The latter two were seen as indicators of a more traditional lifestyle living in an extended family. In 1991, answers were linked to large workplaces, owning the workplace, living with a married son, and having a male heir. The last two are again linked to a more traditional lifestyle. This shows a continuing influence of Confucian values on men’s attitudes toward women.
Evidence of continued Confucian influence is supported by Fetzer & Soper’s (2007) analysis of survey data determining the impact of Confucian values on Taiwanese society. They looked at the 1995 World Values Survey and 2001 East Asian Barometer and found questions that aligned with the Confucian values of family loyalty, social hierarchies, and social harmony. Then they measured support for those values and how they impacted democracy and human rights. They found strong evidence of influence:
One important finding from our analysis is that Confucian values do not consistently undermine liberal democracy…Only on women’s rights do we find any possible pattern of conflict between human rights and
Confucian values. Social harmony, in particular, seems always to decrease adherence to the rights of women. Family loyalty, on the other hand, showed a similar pattern in 1995, but by 2001 was boosting support for women’s rights (p. 53).
The mixed influence of traditional Confucian ideals on women’s rights shown in Fetzer & Sopers’s findings suggests that further research is needed to determine how values and value change affects women’s status in Taiwanese society.
1.1 Research Background
As mentioned in the previous section, marriage and fertility tends have been changing in Taiwan. Many scholars have noted the significant changes in marriage and fertility trends in East Asia beginning in the latter half of the twentieth century. The first of these changes to occur was dropping fertility rates. Japan led the way, with fertility
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rates declining initially from 1925 to 1940, again in 1949, and reaching replacement levels by 1957 (Atoh, Kandiah & Ivanov, 2004). Beginning about the same time Japan reached replacement fertility, other countries in Asia began their declines. Singapore and Taiwan began their fertility decline in the 1950s, with a total fertility rate (TFR) of 6.0, and reached replacement in 1975 and 1983 respectively. Hong Kong’s TFR declined from 5.2 in 1960 to replacement in 1979 and Korea’s TFR declined from 6.0 in 1960 to replacement in 1984. Family planning policies and effective contraception likely
contributed to these declines. Once reaching replacement levels, fertility rates continued to drop and have remained at subreplacement levels for the past 10-25 years in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan (Atoh, Kandiah & Ivanov, 2004). This trend has been dubbed the “East Asian childbearing pattern” and among these countries, Taiwan had the lowest TFR at 1.07 in 2013 (Cheung, 2015). Since hitting a low of 0.90 in 2010, Taiwan’s TFR increased to 1.18 in 2015 (DGBAS, 2016). See Tables 1.1 and 1.2 for detailed fertility information in the region.
Table 1.1: Total Fertility Rates (TFR) for Select Countries, 1970-2013
Year Hong Kong Japan Singapore South Korea Taiwan
1970 3.42 2.14 3.09 4.53 4.00
1980 2.05 1.75 1.74 2.83 2.52
1990 1.27 1.54 1.87 1.59 1.81
2000 1.04 1.36 1.60 1.47 1.68
2010 1.13 1.39 1.15 1.23 0.90
2013 1.13 1.40 1.19 1.19 1.07
Source: Cheung, 2015
Table 1.2: Subreplacement Fertility for Select Countries
Year Reaching Subreplacement TFR
No. of Years of
Subreplacement TFR Year of Lowest TFR
Hong Kong 1981 32 2003 (0.901)
Japan 1975 38 2005 (1.260)
Singapore 1977 36 2010 (1.150)
South Korea 1984 29 2005 (1.076)
Taiwan 1985 28 2010 (0.895)
Source: Cheung, 2015
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There have also been major changes in marriage, especially in ages at first
marriage and increased divorce rates. Mid twentieth century, marriage in the Asia Pacific was nearly universal and being unmarried was considered an “aberration” (Jones, 2004).
Over the last 40 years that fact has been changing. Looking at the singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) for women from 1970 to 2010, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have all seen increases in age of 3.7, 5.0, 6.8, and 7.8 years respectively (Jones, 2014). See Table 1.3 for details of SMAM trends in the region. During the period of subreplacement fertility in Taiwan from 1985 to 2016, the median age at first marriage has increased from 27.6 to 32.0 for men and 24.4 to 29.7 for women (Ministry of the Interior, 2017b). Delayed marriage is also a major contributing factor to subreplacement fertility (Cheung, 2015; Jones, 2007; Lesthaeghe 2010).
Table 1.3: Singulate Mean Age at Marriage in Select Countries, 1970-2010
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Increase
(years)
Japan Men 27.5 28.7 30.4 30.8 31.2 3.7
Women 24.7 25.1 26.9 28.6 29.7 5.0
Singapore
Men 27.8 28.4 29.9 30.0 30.3 2.5
Women 24.2 26.2 27.0 26.5 27.9 3.7
South Korea
Men 27.2 27.3 28.5 30.3 32.9 7.7
Women 23.3 24.1 25.5 27.1 30.1 6.8
Taiwan
Men 24.6 25.3 28.8 30.5 32.7 8.1
Women 22.6 23.9 26.0 27.6 30.3 7.8
Source: Jones, 2014
Proportions of the population marrying have also been dropping as rates of those remaining single have increased since the 1970s (Osteria, 2015). Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have all seen increases in the percentages of singles at ages thirty and over. In Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, this trend has affected the entire population, not just those highly educated. In Taiwan there is evidence of a trend toward lifelong singlehood (Osteria, 2015). By the end of the year in 2016 in Taiwan, 50.9 percent of the population aged 30 to 34, 31.5 percent of the population aged 35 to
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39, and 21.6 percent of the population aged 40 to 44 remained unmarried (Ministry of the Interior, 2017a). See Table 1.4 for more details of singlehood trends in Taiwan.
Table 1.4: Proportions Single by Gender and Age Cohort, Taiwan, 1985-2016
Age 1985 1990 1995 2005 2010 2016
30-34 Men 16.2 22.6 35.4 41.2 54.1 59.4
Women 9.4 12.3 16.0 26.9 37.2 42.5
35-39 Men 7.9 10.6 18.3 21.0 29.0 37.3
Women 5.7 7.5 9.0 14.8 20.9 25.8
40-44
Men 5.7 6.8 10.8 12.7 17.8 24.2
Women 3.2 5.5 6.7 9.5 14.4 19.1
Sources: Osteria, 2015; Ministry of the Interior, 2017a
In addition to delaying marriage or remaining single, divorce rates in East Asia have been rising. Rates in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are now similar to those seen in Europe (Jones, 2015). The crude divorce rate in Taiwan has increased from 0.83 in 1981 to 2.83 at its peak in 2006, and then decreased to 2.28 in 2015 (DGBAS, 2016).
Jones (2015) attributes this change to women’s increasing economic independence, pressures on marriage from living in urban environments, and “perhaps a retreat from Confucianist and other familial norms toward greater individualism” (p. 333).
There is also some evidence of cohabitation in Asian countries, though it is difficult to find surveys that ask detailed questions about it. According to data from the World Value Survey Wave 6 (2010-2014), Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan all have low levels of current cohabitation reported (less than two percent). Among those who did cohabitate, the greatest proportion in Taiwan was the 20 to 29 age cohort, in Korea were the 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 cohorts, and in Singapore and Japan were those age 40 and over. National Japanese surveys tell a different story: 20 percent of Japanese women aged 25 to 34 had previously cohabitated, double the percentage from ten years’
prior (Kobayashi & Kampen, 2015). According to KAP (knowledge, attitude, and practice) Surveys in 1998 and 2004 in Taiwan, women ages 20 to 49 who had ever cohabitated rose from 11.4 percent to 19.6 percent. Better information on cohabitation
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will not be available until more surveys include the “ever cohabitated” question (Lesthaeghe, 2010).
Overall, recent demographic trends in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan can be summarized by sustained subreplacement fertility, delayed marriage, decrease in overall percentage married, increase in percentage of those never married, increase in divorce rates, and limited evidence of cohabitation. Currently out of wedlock births are still uncommon, less than two percent of births for Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, and three percent in Taiwan (Cheung, 2015). Premarital sex may still result in
conception, and “shotgun” marriages for this reason are occurring in Japan (Lesthaghe, 2010).