CLASS MATTERS: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SINGAPOREAN MOTHERS’ WORK-FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS
LEE CHIEN PING TABITHA
LEE CHIEN PING TABITHA
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Abstract
Recent studies have revealed that in Singapore, social class is a greater social divide
than race, and there are low political efforts in tackling the existing economic
inequality. Additionally, while Singaporean women’s educational advancement and
active labour force participation may hint at gender equality, within the family,
women still bear majority of housework and caring duties, leading to the problem of
a double shift. Women of different social classes are equipped with various resources
to cope with this double shift. However, existing scholarships have primarily focused
on the work-family balance of middle-class professional women, and studies on
working class are also based on single-class analysis.
This study systematically explores how social class shapes Singaporean women’s
work-family balance. Particularly, I examine how various aspects of social class -
material, social and cultural resources - influence mothers’ values and ability to
manage work-family arrangements. I also investigate how structural powers such as
the state and labour market organize along class lines to affect mothers’ opportunities
and agency in balancing family and work.
My findings based on qualitative interviews with twenty-eight Singaporean mothers
of different social classes show that class impacts mothers’ work-family balance
through differences in resources, ideologies and state interventions. This indicates
that class and gender inequalities are intertwined to profoundly shape the intimate
arena of the family in Singapore, and deserve more effective public interventions.
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2019-04-19
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