Differences in Gender-Role Attitudes between China and Taiwan

Abstract

This study examines differences in gender-role attitudes between Taiwan and China using data from the 6th wave of the World Values Survey. The results show Taiwan, which began modernizing earlier, to exhibit more egalitarian gender attitudes than China in the domains of education, political leadership, and economic leadership. However, the mainland Chinese are more likely than the Taiwanese to approve of women working for pay, and less likely to feel that women should adopt a solely domestic role, whereas the Taiwanese are more likely than the Chinese to approve of women both working outside the home and staying at home. The results of a multinomial logit model demonstrate the gap in gender-role attitudes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to be most pronounced in the oldest cohorts. The differing trajectories of the socioeconomic transformation in the two societies explain the differences in their gender-role attitudes.