Tapping the potential of married women in Singapore : the role of married women in augmenting Singapore's shrinking labour force

Abstract

In Singapore, it is observed that married women tend to drop out of the labour force in order to commit to caregiving. This represents an under-utilisation of the female human capital. Given Singapore’s rapidly ageing population and tightening foreign labour policy, there is increasing need to optimize the use of local labour supply.

This paper attempts to shed light on the various concerns and challenges faced by married women in Singapore in terms of work and family, while assessing the scope for increasing female labour force participation amongst them. In doing so, we explored the situation through three stages – a pilot study, a questionnaire and a focus group, and identified the salient concerns underlying the family-work tension from which we offered recommendations to address the problem.