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Since 1949 Taiwan and China have been governed by different political regimes. Nevertheless, after more than fifty years, research shows that women in both societies now enjoy significantly higher social status and have lower fertility rates. Despite well-documented literature on the relationship between fertility and women??s status in Taiwan and China, no systematic empirical research has compared the two. This dissertation was designed to investigate the effects of women??s status on fertility and sterilization behaviors in China and Taiwan by means of multi-level analysis focusing on women??s education levels and employment status as predictors at both the individual and aggregate levels. To examine the influence of enforced policy, in China??s models, variables were added about whether the participants had a government-issued one-child certificate or had complied with the childbirth quota set by local authorities. Most results are consistent with our hypotheses. At the macro level, female college graduation rate is significant in Taiwan but not in China. One-child certificate rate is significantly correlated with provincial-level number of Child Ever Born (CEB). At the micro level of Poisson and logistic models, women with status are significantly more likely to have smaller numbers of CEB and lower sterilization usage. Survival analysis that simultaneously analyzed time duration and event occurrence showed dynamic effects of women??s status on the probability of a first, second and third childbirth. The Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models (HGLM) method shows both some direct and some interactive effects of contextual variables on fertility and contraceptive behaviors. In both countries, wives?? educational levels showed the greatest numbers of significant correlations with the dependent variables. Both Western socioeconomically based demographic transition theory and Asian planned demographic transition theory in China receive empirical support in the findings. Methodological and policy implications for future studies are discussed. The findings of this dissertation, particularly the micro-macro linkages, contribute to an explanation of how higher women??s status and lower fertility rates across the two regimes emerged from both common and disparate processes. This dissertation also illustrates how multi-level investigations of fertility and women??s status could be implemented in other parts of the world.

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名古屋大学博士学位論文 学位の種類 : 博士(医学)(課程) 学位授与年月日:平成25年3月25日 江啓発氏の博士論文として提出された

The importance of women’s status for child nutrition has recently been recognized. However, pathways through which women’s status can affect their caretaking practices and child nutrition have not been fully determined. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate associations between aspects of women’s status – including exposure to domestic violence and level of autonomy and social support – with their level of stress, feeding practices and child nutritional status in two different cultural settings: Bangladesh and Nicaragua. Data were acquired from population-based studies. For Study I we used data from the Bangladesh 2007 Demographic and Health Survey, and Study II was embedded in the 2009 Health and Demographic Surveillance System conducted in Los Cuatro Santos, rural Nicaragua. Studies III and IV were part of the MINIMat study, conducted in rural Bangladesh. In-person interviews were conducted and validated questionnaires were used in each of the studies. Anthropometric characteristics of the children were recorded based on standardized World Health Organization techniques. In Bangladesh, we found women with lifetime experience of domestic violence to be more likely to report emotional distress during pregnancy, cease exclusive breastfeeding before 6 months and have a stunted child. Further, we found a negative association between experience of domestic violence and duration of excusive breastfeeding to be mitigated with breastfeeding counseling. In Nicaragua, a lower level of maternal autonomy was associated with more appropriate breastfeeding practices such as higher odds of exclusive breastfeeding and longer continuation of breastfeeding. Further, a maternal lower level of social support was associated with better child nutritional status. In conclusion, this investigation showed that different dimensions of women’s status were associated with their feeding practices and child nutritional status and also revealed that the strength and direction of these associations may vary by the child’s age, setting and other contextual factors. These findings suggest that women’s status might have an important public health impact on child health and its role should be considered in programs and policies aiming to improve child health and nutrition.

Abstract Focusing on women’s fiction in Finland, this thesis aims to show that, although long underrated by literary institutions, the contribution that this form of literature can make to contemporary discussion equals that of any other type of literature. As its starting point, this thesis uses novels written by two successful Finnish authors, Hilja Valtonen, who made her literary debut in 1926, and Aino Räsänen, who published her first novel in 1945. The thesis seeks to answer the following questions: How the novels of the two authors reflect their time? What do they reveal about gender relationships? And what do they tell about differences between women? In addition, the thesis explores how falling in love affects women and how the novels portray marriage. Also discussed are descriptions of emotions that women in the novels experience. Falling within the larger framework of Feminist Literature research, this study also investigates expressions of the patriarchal system and its consequences. Theories of intertextuality are then utilized to demonstrate the significance of intertextual connections for the content matter of the studied novels. Valtonen and Räsänen approach patriarchal use of power from very different perspectives. Employing irony and scathing criticism as vehicles, Valtonen shows how it places women in a subordinate position. For Räsänen, however, patriarchal control and the traditional female duties of house-keeping and motherhood provide a route toward national unity after a gruelling war. At the same time, the pure utopian world of her novel offers both solace and a promise of a better world to women who have endured many hardships. Finnish women’s fiction is traditionally divided into two categories: romantic fiction, which is Räsänen’s speciality, and humorous romance. Valtonen can be said to have pioneered humorous romance in Finnish literature, although her literary production actually breaks the traditional dicotomy in women’s fiction by introducing a third category, namely, the ostensibly humorous romance that comments on society, class, power and women’s position. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan suomalaista naistenviihdettä. Tavoitteena on osoittaa, että tämä pitkään kirjallisuusinstituutijoiden väheksymä kirjallisuudenlaji voi osallistua aikalaiskeskusteluun kuten mikä tahansa muu aikaansa kommentoiva kirjallisuus. Aihetta tarkastellaan kahden kotimaisen menestyskirjailijan, vuonna vuonna 1926 debytoineen Hilja Valtosen ja 1945 esikoisromaaninsa julkaisseen Aino Räsäsen teosten kautta: Miten Valtosen ja Räsäsen teokset kuvastavat aikaansa? Mitä teokset kertovat sukupuolten välisistä suhteista? Entä mitä ne kertovat naisten välisistä eroista? Lisäksi tarkastellaan, mihin rakastuminen teoksissa naisia kuljettaa ja millainen kuva niissä piirtyy avioliitosta. Kyse on myös naisten tunne-elämän kuvailun tarkastelusta. Tutkimus sijoittuu feministisen kirjallisuudentutkimuksen piiriin, ja siinä tutkitaan myös sitä, millä tavoin patriarkaalinen järjestelmä seuramuksineen romaaneissa näyttäytyy. Lisäksi tukeudutaan intertekstuaalisuuden teorioihin ja pyritään osoittamaan, mikä intertekstuaalisten kytkentöjen merkitys on teosten sisällölle. Patriarkaalinen vallankäyttö näyttäytyy Valtosen ja Räsäsen teoksissa eri tavoin. Valtonen osoittaa, ironiaa ja terävää kritiikkiä käyttäen, sen johtavan naisten alisteiseen asemaan. Räsäsen teoksessa patriarkaalinen järjestys ja naisten tehtävä kodin vaalijana ovat tie kohti kansan eheytymistä sodan jälkeisessä tilanteessa. Samalla hänen romaaninsa puhdas utopistinen maailma tarjoaa kovia kokeneille naisille lohtua ja tulevaisuudenuskoa. Suomalaisessa naistenviihteessä on perinteisesti ollut erotettavissa kaksi perustyyppiä: romanttinen rakkausviihde, joka on Räsäsen laji, ja leikillinen rakkausromaani. Valtonen on Suomessa leikillisen rakkausromaanin edelläkävijä, ja itse asiassa Valtosen tuotannossa suomalaisen naistenviihteen perinteinen jaottelu rikkoutuu: kolmas, Valtosen edustama laji on näennäisesti leikillinen, yhteiskuntaan, luokkaan, vallankäyttöön ja naisen asemaan kantaa ottava rakkausromaani.

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