In tandem with the economic development in Taiwan, female participation in the labor market has been growing. In 1980, female labor force participation rate in Taiwan was only 39.25% but it increased about 10 percentage points in the following 27 years, rising to 49.44% in 2007. Compared with advanced countries in the OECD, female labor force participation in Taiwan still has a long way to go. This research draws on past patterns in Taiwan and OECD member countries to understand the development of international female labor force participation. The purposes of this study are to understand the trend of female labor force participation in OECD countries and in Taiwan, and to know the impact of the new economy and atypical work on female labor force participation. From this study, it is obvious that internationally female labor force participation has grown from 1980 to 2006. By age groups, it indicates that the highest female labor force participation rate in OECD countries was in the age group of 40-44 while in Taiwan it was in the age group of 25-29. By the level of educational attainment, it brings out that education has improved female labor force participation since the highest female labor force participation rates were in the group of tertiary education in OECD countries, as well as in Taiwan. By sector and occupation, the statistics show that more and more females are employed in the service sector, working as service workers and sales workers. Moreover, the knowledge-based economy and the atypical jobs have lowered the entry barriers of labor market for females and have improved female labor force participation.

本文以 1998 - 2010 年臺灣五都改制前 25 縣市的追蹤資料 (panel data) ，探討婦女勞動參與與青少年犯罪的關係。估計方法方面則使用 OLS 與固定效果模型。 實證結果顯示，於控制時間趨勢後，婦女勞動參與率對少年竊盜犯罪人口率有顯著正向影響，符合我們的預期，雖然在大多數的模型中影響幾乎都不顯著，但婦女勞動參與的確對部分的青少年犯罪產生影響。因此，政府應該多提供職業婦女一些社會性的扶助，令婦女在參與勞動時能兼顧家庭照顧與監督的功能。此外，教育程度對犯罪人口率的影響，在有或沒有控制時間趨勢的結果一致。在大多數的模型中，相對於國中及以下的教育程度而言，高中職教育程度和大專及以上教育程度越高，犯罪人口率則越低。因此，若欲改善青少年犯罪的問題，應可從提高國民平均教育程度著手。