WOMEN VOLUNTEERS IN SINGAPORE : A STUDY OF PARTICIPATION FACTORS

Abstract

Women in Singapore have always played a significant part in the development of the country. They have contributed to the social and economic life of Singapore. Especially with regard to the issue of voluntary work in social services, women volunteers constitute a large proportion of the voluntary work force. It ls found that ln 1985, 79 percent of the 500 volunteers registered in the Volunteer Action and Development Centre were women (Association for Women Action and Research, 1988). This means that voluntary social services, which are highly dependent on volunteers effort to help run their services, have a significant stake on the volunteers' level of participation. Hence, policy makers and administrators who are interested in promoting volunteer action must be highly sensitised and equipped with a good understanding of who their volunteers are and what motivates them to contribute to the voluntary welfare organisations. Unfortunately, there are few local research on the subject matter. Hence, the researcher is interested in understanding the pool of volunteers currently serving the social services and at the same time to explore on what motivates the volunteers to continue to serve. The aim of this paper is therefore to provide an understanding on the current profile of women volunteers and also to attempt to study the factors that influence their participation. Ultimately then, we hope that the study will be able to give a better insight on voluntarism in Singapore to those who are concerned with improving the quality as well as the quantity of volunteers which is an important resource in the voluntary sector.