Sweet and Sour

Life-Worlds of Taipei Women Entrepreneurs

By (author) Scott Simon

Not available to order

Publication date:

01 September 2004

Length of book:

272 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780585466675

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.
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.