THE SECOND SHIFT" IN SINGAPORE : INSIDE THE DUAL-CAREER FAMILY"

Abstract

This study examines the meanings that eighteen dual-career couples with preschool children give to housework and childcare. It also looks at how they develop "gender strategies" for coping with family work. In five of the families, fathers are described as assuming equal responsibility for family work while in the other thirteen families, fathers remain in a "helper" role at home. Hochschild's concept of "economy of gratitude" illuminates the way that division of household work is affected by the meanings couples assign to women's paid and unpaid labour. In some families, women's paid work is not considered a resource and hence does not lead to a more equitable division of family work. Women continue to bear full responsibility for home management in addition to their job responsibilities. The majority of the women in this study continue to feel guilty for their "inadequacies" in their roles as wives and mothers due to their time spent in paid work, and grateful for whatever help their husbands give in the household. They therefore tend to adopt strategies for coping with the work at home without imposing on their husbands, rather than seeking a re-negotiation of gender roles and a more equitable division of labour in the home.