Mothering under the Shadow of Patriarchy: The Legal Regulation of Motherhood and Its Discontents in Taiwan

父權統治陰影下的母職:母職在台灣的法律管制及其批判

本文旨在探討透過將母職(Motherhood)作為一種社會制度,女性在社會中被置於從屬的地位,究竟法律如何一方面建構女性的從屬地位,另一方面又被女性的從屬地位所影響?此一社會整體結構又在何種程度上被挑戰、甚至獲得改變?本文對母親角色之法律管制的討論,將從女性是否必須成為母親這個看似簡單的問題開始。這個問題一般都被理解為個人的選擇,但本文主張,就像婚姻其實是批著平等契約外衣的一種上下階層制度,母親角色也並非真正個人的自主選擇,而是一種帶有強制性的社會制度。本文的探討聚焦在墮胎權以及對各種新生殖技術的使用與濫用,前者一直被認為應該,但從未真正能夠傳達性別平等的理想。其次,本文探討作為法律與社會制度的母職角色,觀察其如何將女性置於從屬的地位。尤其著重分析勞動市場的運作邏輯,指出其乃建立在以男性員工作為理想典型的基礎之上。此一邏輯在工作與家庭之間畫上一條依據性別所分的線。透過此一區分,作為母親的女性因此必須承受懷孕與育兒的負擔。本文也檢驗對家長角色(Parenthood)的性別建構,試圖揭露為何母親角色被建構成一種責任,而且是從本質上就附帶著各種不利條件的責任,但父親角色卻一直是受到保障的自主選擇。以上述分析為基礎,本文透過討論性別中立相關法制在重構母親角色上的貢獻與侷限,試圖對形式平等的理念作出批判。本文主張,訴諸性別中立的概念,並無法根本性的改變女性在法律制度中的從屬地位。

This paper is an engagement with the questions of how the law is constitutive of and informed by women's subordination under the institution of motherhood, and of the extent to which this schema has been challenged and changed. My discussion of the legal regulation of motherhood begins with the question of whether one has to be a mother, a question that is commonly understood as a matter of choice. I argue that, just as marriage is a hierarchal institution masked as a contract, motherhood is a mandatory institution into which one appears to enter voluntarily. My investigation focuses on the right to abortion, a right that is supposed, but often fails, to convey the idea of sex equality, as well as on the use and abuse of new reproductive technologies. I then explore the legal and social institution of motherhood as it relates to the subordination of women, discussing how the labor market is premised on the male ideal-worker" norms, which draw a gendered line between work and family and consequently subordinate mothers to the burdens" of pregnancy and childcare. I also examine the gendered construction of parenthood, and reveal how motherhood is constructed as a responsibility with disadvantages etched deeply into its very foundations, whereas fatherhood remains an entitled choice. In keeping with these analyses, I provide a critique of formal equality, as a notion, by discussing the contributions as well as limitations of gender-neutral" laws in reshaping the institution of motherhood, and suggest that women's subordination under the law cannot be fundamentally changed using the concept of gender-neutrality.