translocal chinese: east asian perspectives 13 (2019) 35-56 © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/24522015-01301003 brill.com/tcea The Unspoken Dilemma of Expat Wives Gender Roles and Relations within Taiwanese Expatriate Families in Singapore Chia-Yuan Huang PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, University College London, U.K. chia-yuan.huang.14@ucl.ac.uk Abstract The majority of Taiwanese expatriates in Singapore are working in male-dominated sectors such as high-tech industries. It is common for Taiwanese male expatriates to choose to bring their family members along to the host country. In order to accom- pany their husbands to Singapore, these expatriate wives must give up their careers in Taiwan. Some of them become stay-at-home wives while others seek to rebuild their careers in Singapore. This study investigates how Taiwanese expatriate wives juggle their work and family commitments and identifies how they negotiate gender-role ex- pectations relating to both family and work. The results show that this group of highly qualified Taiwanese women who have a history of strong professional achievement and have levels of human capital similar to their husbands still have not managed to break the shackles of traditional gender roles. Instead of advancing their own careers, they are expected to put their husbands’ careers first. Keywords expatriate – family – gender role – Taiwan – Singapore 1 Introduction In 2009, Taiwan’s high-tech industry experienced a serious recession due to the international financial crisis. In contrast, at that time Singapore was expand- ing its stimulus package in order to attract foreign talent and international professionals. Many semiofficial human resource organizations in Singapore were optimistic about Taiwan’s scientific and technological manpower and so