An insight into voluntary childlessness in Singapore

Abstract

Parenthood is universally extolled to be a desirable and normative social role. However, the proliferation of reliable birth contraceptives has allowed married couples to choose to not have children, controlling reproduction by preference. This qualitative research explores the factors that influence working wives to remain childless, and whether there are significant differences in the motivations of such higher- and lower-skilled women. From interviews with 16 Chinese-Singaporean voluntarily-childless working women, the diverse reasons given for wanting to remain childless are grouped into three broad categories – (i) roles of motherhood and employment perceived as incompatible, (ii) subscription to “intensive mothering” ideology and (iii) rise of individualism in contemporary society. There are indeed marked differences in the dominant factors given by higher- versus lower-skilled respondents. While the former group possesses greater autonomy to choose childlessness, the lower-skilled respondents were prevented from having children due largely to financial considerations.