A Migrant's 'Femininomenon': examining perceptions and negotiations of gendered workplace dynamics by foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, Singapore has growingly relied on the outsourcing of Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) to address the increasing “care deficit” in its reproductive sphere. Existing scholarship has largely focused on how Singapore’s legal policies––particularly, how the mandatory live-in arrangement and the exclusion of FDWs from the Employment Act––have exposed them to precarity, exploitation, and abuse by employers. However, beyond a policy-centric analysis, we contend that a gendered perspective is equally crucial in understanding the experiences of FDWs––specifically, how gendered considerations may shape the employer-employee dynamics, including employer-imposed ground rules and the interactions between FDWs and both male and female employers. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 FDWs, our thesis explores: (1) How do foreign domestic workers (FDWs) perceive workplace gender dynamics in Singapore?, and (2) How do FDWs navigate and negotiate gendered working dynamics?

Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Foucault’s concept of disciplinary power, our findings reveal that workplace dynamics in the household are deeply shaped by gendered considerations of both FDWs and their employers. These gendered dynamics, in turn, reconstruct FDWs as various identities of the familial unit––such as a child, a maternal figure, a prey, or a predator––each carrying distinct gendered motivations and implications on how FDWs are regulated. In response, FDWs develop strategies to navigate and negotiate these gendered dynamics, including avoidance, skill-building opportunities, and the reaffirmation of their femininity within and beyond the workplace.