Who Gets the Kid? Female Empowerment and Child Custody in Taiwan

Abstract

Women’s status in Taiwan has improved substantially due to rapid social and legal changes, yet how female empowerment affects child custody outcomes has been studied little. This study analyzes the entirety of divorce registration records in 2002–2004 and 2018–2020 to reveal the evolution of custodial arrangements in Taiwan. It pays particular attention to how mother’s changing traits and spousal pairings in age and education affect the probability of different child custody outcomes. The findings show that maternal age and education matter in both absolute and relative terms. Higher maternal age and education are associated with more mother-sole and joint custody decisions. Women in age and educational hypogamy secure mother-sole custody more often than their nonhypogamous peers. Furthermore, with improved women’s status at the society level, all women and particularly those in nontraditional unions now have become less likely to face a complete loss of child custody upon divorce than before.