台灣家戶型女性製茶師的職涯發展：從性別與學徒制角度切入

Abstract

在臺灣茶產業中，製茶師長期多由男性擔任。女性雖廣泛參與採茶、揀茶等工作，成為製茶師者仍相對少見。臺灣茶產業以小規模家戶經營為主，製茶技術多在家庭內部傳承，形成「家即是廠」的生產格局。當師父同時是父親、公公或丈夫，女性能否學習製茶，往往受到親屬身分、家庭分工與繼承等因素影響。基於此，本研究聚焦家戶型製茶產業，探討女性如何走向製茶、習得技藝，並在性別化的結構中建立專業身分，成為一名「技藝職人」。 研究採質性多個案研究法，以北部坪林、三峽、南港與木柵茶區的六位女性製茶師為對象，透過半結構式深度訪談蒐集資料，輔以參與觀察及相關文件，掌握個案所處的產業環境與制度脈絡。資料分析採建構主義紮根理論的編碼程序，整理其職涯路徑、技藝養成、性別經驗與專業身分建立的歷程。 研究發現有四。第一，女性多以「幫忙」為起點，逐漸靠近製茶技藝，形成「軟性進入」的職涯路徑：此種進入方式降低她們接觸技術的阻力，也使其勞動容易被視為家業協助，專業身分因而長期處於模糊狀態。第二，家戶型學徒制透過親屬身分分配學習機會。家人是否承認女性具有學習資格，直接影響她們能否從旁觀摩走向實際操作；部分家庭出於疼惜或保護，讓女性遠離辛苦工作，形成「保護性的不傳承」，延遲其製茶技藝的累積。第三，「體力」經常被用以解釋女性不適任製茶工作，但個案透過工作分配、工具運用、操作調整與經驗累積完成工作，顯示體力也構成一套帶有性別差異的專業篩選條件。第四，女性的專業身分須在家內、制度、同行與自我認可之間逐步建立，並延伸為帶有性別視角的專業願景。會製茶尚不足以取得「製茶師」身分，仍須在長期實作與社會互動中獲得認可。 在研究貢獻上，本研究提出「軟性進入」與「保護性的不傳承」兩個概念，說明性別如何透過親屬關係與家戶型學徒制，影響女性進入製茶、累積技術及建立專業身分的歷程。本研究亦將「製茶師」理解為透過長期實作累積內隱知識，並在家庭、制度、同行與自我認可之間逐步建立專業身分的技藝職人，藉此呈現女性由參與製茶走向「成師」所需跨越的門檻，以及此歷程對製茶技術傳承與產業性別秩序的意義。惟本研究以臺灣北部四個茶區的六位女性製茶師為對象，多數個案以女兒身分進入家業，僅一位為媳婦，尚難涵蓋全臺各茶區及不同親屬位置的經驗，研究發現主要反映北部家戶型製茶產業的脈絡，仍待其他地區與更多不同背景的個案加以補充。整體而言，女性的「成師」是一段由進入、養成、認可與認同逐步累積且相互交織的歷程，也在技藝實作與專業身分建立的過程中，逐漸鬆動「製茶師即男性」的既定圖像。

In Taiwan’s tea industry, the role of tea master has long been held predominantly by men. Although women have participated extensively in tea plucking, sorting, and other forms of tea-related labor, relatively few have become tea masters. Tea production in Taiwan is largely organized around small-scale household enterprises, in which tea-making skills are transmitted within the family and the home often functions simultaneously as a production site. When the master is also a father, father-in-law, or husband, women’s access to tea-making knowledge is shaped by kinship position, household division of labor, and family succession arrangements. Against this background, this study focuses on the household-based tea industry and examines how women enter tea making, acquire the craft, and establish a professional identity as craftsman within a gendered structure. This study adopts a qualitative multiple-case design involving six female tea masters from four tea-producing areas in northern Taiwan: Pinglin, Sanxia, Nangang, and Muzha. Data were collected primarily through semi-structured, in-depth interviews, supplemented by participant observation and relevant documentary materials to contextualize the industrial and institutional environments in which the participants worked. The data were analyzed using coding procedures informed by constructivist grounded theory, with attention to the participants’ career trajectories, craft formation, gendered experiences, and processes of professional identity construction. Four major findings emerged. First, most participants entered tea making through the role of a “helper” and gradually moved closer to the core of the craft, forming a career pathway conceptualized in this study as “soft entry.” This mode of entry reduced the resistance they encountered when approaching tea-making work, while also allowing their labor to be interpreted as assistance to the family business. Their professional status therefore often remained ambiguous for an extended period. Second, learning opportunities within household-based apprenticeships were distributed according to kinship position. Whether family members regarded women as legitimate learners directly affected their ability to move from observation to hands-on practice. In some families, women were kept away from physically demanding tasks out of care or concern. This pattern, termed “protective non-transmission,” delayed their accumulation of tea-making skills. Third, physical strength was frequently invoked to explain women’s presumed unsuitability for tea-making work. The participants, however, accomplished the work through task allocation, the strategic use of tools, adjustments in technique, and accumulated experience. Their experiences show that physical strength also operates as a gendered criterion for professional selection. Fourth, women’s professional identities were established gradually through recognition from the family, formal institutions, peer networks, and themselves, and later developed into professional aspirations informed by gender awareness. The ability to make tea alone did not secure the title of “tea master”; such recognition had to be acquired through sustained practice and social interaction. This study contributes the concepts of “soft entry” and “protective non-transmission” to explain how gender operates through kinship relations and household-based apprenticeship, shaping women’s entry into tea making, accumulation of skills, and their construction of professional identity. It also conceptualizes the tea master as a craftsman who develops tacit knowledge through sustained practice and whose professional identity is gradually formed through familial, institutional, peer, and self-recognition. This perspective clarifies the thresholds women must cross as they move from participating in tea production to “becoming a master,” as well as the significance of this process for the transmission of tea-making skills and the gender order of the industry. This study is limited to six female tea masters from four tea-producing regions in northern Taiwan. Most entered the family business as daughters, while only one entered as a daughter-in-law. The findings therefore cannot encompass the experiences of women across all tea-growing regions or kinship positions and should be understood within the context of northern Taiwan’s household-based tea industry. Further research involving other regions and participants from more diverse backgrounds is needed. Overall, women’s “becoming a master” is a dynamic process in which entry, formation, recognition, and identification gradually accumulate and intersect. Through craft practice and the establishment of professional identity, these women are slowly reshaping the entrenched association between tea mastery and masculinity.