Session 99: Changes in Gender Roles in Contemporary East and Southeast Asia

Organizer and Chair: Emiko Ochiai, Kyoto University

Discussant: Barbara Molony, Santa Clara University

Keywords: gender roles, East and Southeast Asia, housewife, care, social network.

East and Southeast Asian societies are witnessing a rapid social change due to the economic growth of this region and the tide of globalization. The aim of this session is to discuss the variety and universality of the changes in gender roles in this region on empirical ground. Four papers are all from a joint research project on this topic conducted in six societies in this region: China, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

We start from the fact that the six societies are classified into three types in terms of female life course. The age-specific rates of female labor force participation stay high throughout the whole productive period in China and Thailand (type 1), whereas they decline gradually from the mid-thirties in Singapore and Taiwan (type 2), and the M-shaped curve with a temporal decline around late twenties and thirties is observed in Japan and Korea (type 3). There is no universality in female life course in this region now.

Our questions are twofold. First, what are the factors that affect the pattern of female life course and form different patterns in different areas? We particularly focus on the structure of social networks that provide care for children and elders. Second, what will happen to gender in this region in near future? Will universality appear due to the emergence of full-time housewives in type 1 and 2 societies?

The discussant will extend the scope to compare the contemporary changes in these societies to historical experiences of Europe, the U.S. and Japan.

Gender Roles and Child Care Networks in East and Southeast Asian Societies

Mari Yamane, Aichi Gakuin University

This paper is based on a research project that compares the changes of gender roles in six societies in East and Southeast Asia, China, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Major questions are whether the full-time housewives will become the majority in double-income societies (housewifization) and whether the full-time housewives will become extinct in male-dominant societies in the near future (de-housewifization). Our analysis will focus on female life course and child care networks in the urban middle class, which is just established or being established in many of these areas.

Our major findings are as follows: (1) in double-income societies, i.e., type 1 (China and Thailand) and type 2 (Singapore and Taiwan) societies, multiple child care networks exist; (2) in M-curve societies, i.e., type 3 (Korea and Japan), child care networks are rather insufficient; (3) the domestic worker system based on international/intra-national economic gaps enables a double-income lifestyle in some Asian societies; and (4) there exist support networks on both the mother’s and father’s sides even in what we call patrilineal societies.

In conclusion, we hold that the trend of housewifization is more or less observed in double-income societies, although its context is different. One category is the situational housewifization forced by unemployment, etc., and the other category is the housewifization driven by the motherhood norm. As for de-housewifization, we do not find any current of de-housewifization in type 3 societies, as in the U.S. and some Northwest European societies since 1970s. We discuss the implications of the findings in light of the theory on gender and modernity.

The Female Life Course of the Thai Urban Middle Class

Hiroko Hashimoto, Shikoku University

This paper intends to consider how urbanization and changes in industrial structure have affected female life course of the Thai urban middle class.

In spite of the well-known reversed U-shaped labor force pattern of women, we found several full-time housewives in a residential area of the urban middle class in the suburbs of Bangkok. However, this phenomenon does not always mean the formation of the "modern family." In the residential area of lower-middle or middle-middle class families, many married women have to become housewives because of the absence of nursery centers and relatives’ help or the lack of money or chances to hire good nannies for their children. In the strict sense, they are not ideal housewives of the "modern family." I propose to call these housewives a "negative type." Some housewives, who can’t find jobs in spite of their wish to work, also fall into this type.

However, there are well-educated housewives, too. Some of them become full-time housewives of their own will. I call them the "positive housewife" type. They insist that they themselves should take care of and teach their children well at home. This idea seems a very similar way of thinking with that of the modern family. However, such "positive type" housewives still remain few, although the campaigns of the Thai government and the mass media support the idea of the Western modern family.

Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore

Kayoko Ueno, University of Tokushima

This paper examines how Singapore has emerged as one of the top employers of Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) by focusing on several relevant factors—government policies; Singaporeans’ pragmatism towards the maintenance of the family; the development of the broker industry; and the availability of low cost laborers from neighboring countries. Interviews with Philippine and Indonesian FDWs and employers of FDWs were also conducted as part of this research.

Singapore government policies on FDWs are carefully engineered to promote economic development and family stability. This is done through incentives to Singaporeans, especially educated females, to encourage them to stay in the work force and to start their own families. The popularity of FDWs among Singaporean families is commonly believed to be the result of the widespread perception that "whoever does the household chores is unimportant." In other words, the absence of an association between a homemaker and the Singaporean stereotype of a good wife is noteworthy. The procedures and costs involved in hiring an FDW through a broker has brought forth the emergence of arrangements such as the "free FDW exchange package plan" for prospective employers, and the "paying off debt to be hired" scheme for prospective FDWs. Consequently, FDWs lose their bargaining power and are left in disadvantageous positions with employers. As a result, Singapore functions as a training ground for FDWs, and acts as a portal for the FDWs to their possible, but slim, career choices in the global economy after a stint in Singapore.

A Comparative Study of Female Life Course and Child Care Networks in Korea and Japan

Sang-Ook Hong, Yeungnam University

This paper aims to do a comparative discussion on female life course and child care networks in Korea and Japan, where there emerged a modern gender division of labor and M-curve labor force pattern along with industrialization. Though gender equity has become an agenda of both governments in these twenty years, this labor force pattern and strong norms on motherhood still continue to exist.

There are similarities of formal child care networks, stratified institutions and uncommon use of domestic workers. Korean child care institutions are stratified by age of children. Before children become three years old, there is relative lack of institutions but after they become three years old, there are multiple institutions. In Japan, child care institutions are stratified by mother’s occupational status. Children of working mothers can go to nurseries even when they are babies, whereas children of housewives under three years old cannot go to formal institutions regularly.

In both societies, husbands take little part in child care, whereas relatives play an important role. Grandmothers play an important role in both societies, both father’s and mother’s sides in Korea, and mother’s side in Japan. In Korea, there are networks of friends and neighbors organized by both housewives and working mothers, which are not common in Japan. Distress among "full-time mothers" has been a structural problem in Japan because of their restricted networks.

We will discuss under what conditions these life course and network patterns will change.