audrey’s Weblog

In the previous lecture, we watched a documentary on how the economy and globalization has affected the family and roles of women in the United States (US). My thoughts then shifted to how the rapidly growing economy in Singapore has affected its families and the roles of women.

The situations in the two nations are similar. In both, an increasing number of women are pursuing higher education and then using that education in professional jobs. Many of these women also have children at home to look after, and struggle to handle work both at home and in the office. This is where the term ‘supermom’ comes in. In many families, both parents work, creating little time for their children. There is hence a general lack of time for the family.

As a result, many companies have stepped in to provide help, which could also be seen from the documentary. Companies have started providing child care services for children of their employees. With this benefit for staff, a smaller number of women would quit their jobs to look after their children and employees would be better able to focus. This in fact boosts the morale of employees, which in turn improves their performance. This is very much the same in Singapore. Nanyang Technological University (NTU), for example, has a child care centre for faculty and staff members’ children who are between 3 and 6 years old. The centre is currently operated by Learning Vision Pte Ltd and provides full day care at a reasonable price. [1]

Moving on to Singapore in specifics, the changes in population policies instituted by the government do show the changing roles of women and priorities in the family. In 1965, when Singapore was still a new state, the government embarked on the ‘Two is Enough’ policy. The policy consisted of granting a set of material incentives and disincentives in housing allocation, educational opportunities for children, tax and healthcare benefits, accompanied by aggressive publicity campaigns. [2] However, as Singapore became more developed and educational levels rose, family priorities changed as well. Many people, women included, placed more emphasis on careers, choosing to start a family later and have fewer children. There was no longer a widespread preference for larger families. Birth rates took a drastic dip.

With the projection that Singapore might not be able to replace its population, the government abandoned the ‘Two is Enough’ policy and changed it to the current ‘three or more if you can afford it’ policy in 1987. However since then, there have only been very marginal increases in birth rates. The government introduced Baby Bonus Scheme in 2001 in the hope of encouraging families to have more children, by helping to lighten the financial cost of having children. [3] However, unless the values of society change, it is unlikely that there will be a significant increase in birth rates because of the baby bonus scheme.

As we can see, roles and the way Singaporean women think have changed. Not too long ago, less emphasis was given to education for women. There was a kind of division of labour, whereby women were in charge of maintaining the home and nurturing the children, while the men go out to work. With the rapid development of Singapore these last 43 years, young Singaporean women have the opportunity to attain higher education, and many place greater importance on their careers as opposed to starting a family. 

Hence, Singapore now faces the same situation as many of the more developed countries in the world – highly burdened women and a troubling population growth rate.