Examining gender differentials in health : the impacts of education, employment, and family roles in Taiwan
Year: 2007
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Just as in most industrial countries, in Taiwan, women seem more likely than men \nto experience poorer health during their life course. In recent national surveys conducted \nin Taiwan, women consistently report poorer health than do men. Nevertheless, the risk \nfactors and the mechanisms through which they operate to produce gender differences in \nhealth in Taiwan remain poorly understood. \nEvidence has suggested that gendered differences in health are a consequence of \nthe stratification system. In current Taiwan society, women remain disadvantaged in \nterms of educational attainment, labor force participation, and division of domestic labor. \nAccordingly, while existing studies of gender differences in health in Taiwan focus on \nthe comparisons of male and female health behaviors, this research highlights the \nimportant influence of education, employment, and family roles in shaping the gender \ngap in morbidity. Because many married women in Taiwan are informally employed in \nfamily firms, this research also pays attention to examining the impact of working in a \nfamily business on the health of married women. \nThis project employs two data sets drawn from the Taiwan Social Change Survey \nin year 2000 and 2002. The effects of social factors on multiple health measures, \nincluding chronic disease status, illness status in the past two weeks, and self-rated \nhealth, are examined. Results indicate that gender differentials in health in different age \ngroups are determined by different sets of social and behavioral factors. The impacts of \ncombining paid work and family responsibilities on health vary depending on social and \ndemographic variables such as gender, age, the type of employment, and the nature of \nfamily roles. Specifically, the findings reveal that the protective effect of familial \nemployment is particularly significant among young married women. Finally, the effects \nof employment on health are found to be partly mediated through working hours.
Author: Gang-Hua Fan
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1909404282