Gender, Sibship Structure, and Educational Inequality in Taiwan: Son Preference Revisited

Abstract

This study examines how sibship characteristics affect educational attainment in Taiwan. Using a multilevel analysis of a sibling sample of 12,715 observations from 3,001 families drawn from a national survey, we investigate the effects of family size, sibship density, birth‐order rank, and sibship gender composition. The results support the argument that the effect of son preference on intrafamily educational inequality is conditional on family resources. We also find, however, that male firstborns, who are the ultimate inheritors of paternal authority in Chinese families, have additional leverage in the sibling competition for family resources. The privilege for firstborns does not extend to daughters. Therefore, we argue that culturally defined norms regarding seniority and gender help shape intrafamily resource allocation in Chinese society.

Sibship size and status attainment across contexts: Evidence from the Netherlands, 1840-1925

“…The negative effect of sibship size on child outcomes has been found to be much weaker, neutral or even positive in some developing societies (Buchmann and Hannum 2001;Desai 1995;Eloundou-Enyegue and Williams 2006;Gomes 1984;Hermalin, Seltzer and Lin 1982;Lu and Treiman 2008;Maralani 2008;Razzaque, Streatfield and Evans 2007;Sudha 1997;Yu and Su 2006). Moreover, historical research (Adams and Kasakoff 1992;Van Bavel 2005;Wall 1996), as well as some older sociological work on social class differences in the relation between family size and status attainment (Bayer 1967;Elder 1962), provides evidence that partly refutes the resource dilution hypothesis.…”

Women, Schooling, and Marriage in Rural Philippines

“…Behrman and Taubman (1986), Black, Devereux and Salvanes (2005) and Gary-Bobo, Picard, and Prieto (2006) find that early-born children (those with low rank) have better schooling outcomes. In Taiwan, Yu and Su (2006) find that the first-born son has an advantage but not the first-born daughter, suggesting a role played by parental preference for sons. In Egypt, on the other hand, later-born girls do better in school, whereas the first-born son is particularly disadvantaged (Rammohan and Dancer 2008).…”

“…In societies with a preference for son, educational gender gaps have been observed at the household level but their magnitude reduces with household wealth (Yu and Su 2006;Rammohan and Dancer 2008). Behrman and Taubman (1986), Black, Devereux and Salvanes (2005) and Gary-Bobo, Picard, and Prieto (2006) find that early-born children (those with low rank) have better schooling outcomes.…”

“…Although there is widespread consensus that sibship size is associated with negative schooling outcomes (Butcher and Case 1994;Hauser and Kuo 1998;Gary-Bobo, Picard, and Prieto 2006;Yu and Su 2006), the debate on the effects of sibship structure remains unresolved. Butcher and Case (1994) find sibship sex composition effects with women raised only with brothers receiving more education than those raised with at least one sister.…”

“…access to segregated schooling, contributions to family income), the schooling attainment of children of both genders increases when the proportion of siblings of the gender with low costs increases. In the traditional, patriarchal societies-particularly in Asia-parental preference for sons and seniority can also influence their allocation of educational resources (Parish and Willis 1993;Yu and Su 2006).…”