Sweet and Sour: Life-Worlds of Taipei Women Entrepreneurs

(Paperback)

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Description

Sweet and Sour explores the experiences of women entrepreneurs amidst the contradictions of a freewheeling commercial culture set within the patriarchal constraints of contemporary Taiwan. To what extent are Taiwanese women empowered by entrepreneurship What challenges do they face as women in their families and in the marketplace How do they construct physical and social space for themselves in a traditionally male-dominated society Most important, how do they perceive their businesses, their families, and their personal identities both as women and as business owners

Focusing on the voices and perspectives of the women themselves, Scott Simon draws from life-narratives of women from various ages, ethnic groups, social classes, and occupations to provide a diverse set of rarely heard native voices speaking out on gender and entrepreneurship in Taiwan.

Reviews

Scott Simon, in Sweet and Sour: Life-Worlds of Taipei Women Entrepreneurs, takes up the specific struggle of women entrepreneurs in Taiwan during the 1980s when the economy was expanding the export sector and entering the stage of development with higher rates of economic growth. Simon . . . has gathered remarkable insights in the process that promote women's entry in new economic activities, transforming their conditions of life. -- Krishna Ahooja-Patel, Saint Mary's University, Halifax
Thought-stimulating book . . . excellent. * Taipei Times *
Sweet and Sour is an interesting and important ethnography about Taipei, Taiwan, a place that is fully integrated into a global community, and the women who own businesses there. Its ethnographic detail makes this book a pleasure to read. * Anthropology of Work Review *
This is a wonderful book. Anyone needing an ethnography of Taiwan today should assign it, as should anyone interested in East Asian societies, flexible accumulation, and gender. -- Hill Gates, Stanford University

Author Bio

Scott Simon is associate professor of sociology, University of Ottawa.