Gender Relations in Singapore Malay Dual-Income Households: (Un)Changing Views and Practices

Abstract

Over the last four decades the labour-force participation rate of women in Southeast Asia has been steadily increasing. While gender relations are changing in the public sphere as more women play dominant roles in the employment sector, whether gender relations in the domestic sphere are changing is rather ambiguous. In this article, the author looks at gender relations in Singapore Malay dual-income households. She shows that there are existing cultural perceptions of Malays regarding the roles of women and men in the family: i.e. women see to care-giving and men see to breadwinning. She also argues that parallels of this perception can be found at the state level as well. The Singapore government too is of the view that the primary caregiver in the family is the woman. The author illustrates this by using the example of the discourse on the ‘supermom’ in Singapore to show the government’s expectations of women’s role as mother. There is external support which makes Malay women affirm their maternal role. In conclusion, the author suggests that Malay women’s and men’s decisions around the division of labour must be conceived within the wider framework of society. Explanations for persistence of unequal division of labour in Malay dual-income households must take into account state views of gender roles.