CLASS MATTERS: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SINGAPOREAN MOTHERS’ WORK-FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS

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.