CHILDCARE CENTRES IN SINGAPORE : A SPACE-TIME ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study attempts to provide a geographical perspective on one major aspect in the everyday lives of working parents with young children: childcare. The role of childcare centres in helping parents in Singapore face the practical problems of balancing the demands of childcare and career form the main focus of investigation. Emphasis in this study is placed on the effects of space-time constraints of activity sites in affecting the activity patterns of both parents, especially the mothers. As women continue to constitute a large proportion of the labour force in Singapore, the ways in which their spatial behaviour varies with respect to societal forces is an increasingly important issue; this is further accentuated by their role in resolving the tight labour market in Singapore. Activity sites of childcare centres, public transportation nodes and places of employment form the framework upon which patterns of movement and their temporal regularities are built. Studies have shown that the locational factors of such activity sites are important preconditions for women entering and remaining in the work force. Greater understanding of these factors will provide additional information of the circumstances that keep women out of the work force after having children. This study attempts to (1) determine the impact of space-time logistics of urban infrastructure - such as the location of residence and workplace, roads and public transportation on working parents in their utilisation of childcare centres; (2) examine the relative importance of socio-economic characteristics and social-related roles in the response of working couples towards societal constraints; and (3) discuss the way in which flexible work schedules, changes in space-time logistics of childcare centres and public transportation, reorganisation of time-tabling of other desired activities and more supportive land use can incorporate the logistical needs of working mothers. The survey findings of 20 childcare centres and 225 pairs of parents using childcare services suggest that there is a demand for childcare places, which is not being met. They also establish that many parents face problems of traffic congestion and work commitments in their daily childcare pickups. In addition, working mothers from lower paid occupations face the greatest pressures of household responsibilities and will leave the work force if childcare centres were not available - a finding that supports the expectation that household responsibilities lead women to have weak labour force attachment. While flexi-time work schedules may not solve problems caused by obligatory work commitments, improvement in traffic conditions and changing the operating hours of childcare centres will be able to alleviate some of the travel tensions. This study has identified the need to improve existing public transportation system and to make the location of various activity sites more accessible in order to help working mothers cope with the demands of career and childcare. In addition, the present disparities of pay, promotion opportunities and leave system between genders must also be changed. This will eventually lead to a dismantling of the old system, which kept women at a disadvantage position at work. It is hoped that with this change, it will help to alter the traditional division of labour between genders at home as well as in the society at large.