the early years of taiwan s exportled boom were fuelled by the entry of these women into export factories in the s when taiwan faced labour shortages a statesponsored satellite factory system made industrial work more consistent with traditional female roles enabling increases in the labour supply of wives and mothers hsiung this sort of structural flexibility relative to women s work and family roles is a feature that persists in taiwanese labour markets today and dovetails with expectations that women contribute financially to their families yu as a consequence increases in female labour force participation have been large and sustained going from per cent in to per cent in and per cent in compared to other east asian economies which typically have some of the largest gender wage gaps in the world women in taiwan experience a gender wage gap closer to the norm for liberal advanced industrialized countries the gender wage ratiofor average monthly earnings in industry and services was in let us consider whether these dynamics have drawn taiwan closer to the low roadfeminization of responsibility or high road gender egalitarian case