關於勞動市場中兩性的成就差異，學界已多有討論；對婦女特有就業模式所進行的研究，近來也累積了相當豐富的成果。本文所欲指出者，乃在於婦女們所具備的教育程度、所承受的家庭需求及其追求職業成就的動力，應未必與男性相同；也或許因此形成婦女不同的就業歷程，進而影響了婦女的職業成就與實質收入。我們從檢討傳統的理論與相關文獻出發，再經由資料分析，發現代表家庭需求的各項因素皆明顯地影響著婦女的就業狀況及其收入；也體認到女性在就業與家庭之間的抉擇，受婚後家庭環境的影響甚大，因而有不同的就業歷程。另外，就教育程度不同的女性來說，各因素的影響程度並不相同，其就業歷程也有明顯的差別。因此，在婦女就業歷程差異的背後，實乃隱含著個人對職業與收入的不同程度的需求感及渴望，也或許能提供我們理解婦女在勞動市場上之所以產生各種成就差異的一個全新思考方向。

Among gender studies, researchers have been focused on gender inequality and the employment patterns. The cause and effect of women's employment status and modes, however, have not received much attention. In this paper, we propose a hypothesis arguing that family demand is the key factor to affect women's employment and job career modes; further, the relative importance of this factor varies among women with different educational attainments. Using data from 2000 Taiwan Women's Marriage and Fertility Survey, our empirical results generally support the assumptions metioned above. Because of this, it may be more appropriate to claim that women have to make a choice while facing the situation of family demand after their marriage. We thus suggest that researchers should reconsider the conventional wisdom that the association between working women and low wages derives purely from being discriminated or a penalty for being wives and motherhood.