在討論婦女就業與家庭制度的關聯中,婦女於結婚及生育階段退出勞動力市場的現象一向受到重視,然而其實有更多的已婚婦女始終未曾因為家庭階段的改變而中斷就業,此一現象值得深入探討。本文針對婚前、婚後、至最小子女入學前皆持續就業之已婚婦女,檢視她們如何以彈性就業模式來因應家庭制度的需求。樣本來源為在全省隨機抽樣之958位已婚婦女,符合分析條件者需經歷結婚和生育階段,結果共有939位已婚婦女成為研究對象。分析結果顯示,結婚和生育固然是婦女離職之重要家庭因素(合佔45.1%),但持續就業(43.7%)是最主要的婦女就業型態。而在所有持續就業的婦女中,隨著家庭階段的發展,30.3%的樣本於婚後/生育後由正式部門轉換至彈性工作,顯示彈性就業模式對婦女持續就業之重要性。至於影響台灣婦女轉換至彈性就業模式的因素中,丈夫的家庭脈絡以及婦女工作屬性能否配合家庭需求為最顯著的考量,意涵著婦女持續就業之不同模式乃因應家庭制度與勞動角色雙重要求的妥協產品,而非歸諸於婦女個人人力資本或工作動機之高低。鑑於婦女持續就業模式並非同質的人口群、有其內在變異性,但皆取決於相同的家庭機制之結構性影響,本文最後討論此一發現對婦女就業發展上之可能意涵。
One of the most noticeable phenomena between family and work institutions is that married women tend to withdraw from the labor force after marriage and after childbirth. However, there are actually more married women in Taiwan who stay in the labor force throughout various family life cycles. This paper examines how these women maintain their employment from 'before marriage', 'after marriage', to 'before the youngest child enters primary school' by means of flexible employment patterns. Samples are randomly selected married women who have experienced marriage and childbearing stages. There are 939 Taiwanese women in our final sample. The result points out that among the Taiwanese sample, continual employment (43.7%) is the single most dominant employment pattern of Taiwanese married women. Among women of the continual employment pattern, flexible employment (including both informal and part-time employment) is shown to contribute to women's labor force participation: 30.3% of Taiwanese women in the sample transfered from formal to flexible work after marriage or after childbirth. Among factors affecting women's various employment patterns, the husband's family occupation as well as the women's work characteristics are found to be significant. This implies that the continual employment patterns of Taiwanese women is a compromise between demands from both family and work institutions, much more salient than the effect of women's human capital and personal work attitudes. Since women who fall into the continual employment category are not homogeneous, but rather reveal significant internal variation, this paper briefly discusses the important implications of the study for career development among married women in Taiwan.