As if the government hasn’t had enough trouble in raising the country’s birth rate, they now have another problem: growing dissatisfaction with marital life in Singapore.
I almost feel sorry for the government.
The Details of the Study
A study done by a group of professors and students has found that women were less satisfied with their marriages during and after the circuit breaker.
The study examined the roles men and women played in terms of childcare and housework during the pandemic last year, as well as the difference in the time men and women spent on such tasks.
For the study, 290 married women who have at least one child each were surveyed. The women were part of a larger group of 660 married women that one of the study’s authors, Dr Tan Poh Lin, has been interviewing since 2018 on various aspects of their married life, including sexual frequency and when they had babies.
Dr Tan Poh Lin is an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The other authors of the study are Dr Emma Zang, Mr Thomas Lyttelton and Ms Anna Gup. The former is an assistant professor at Yale University while the latter two are a PhD and master’s student at Yale respectively.
The study was presented virtually at the Population Association of America’s annual conference in May.
The Study’s Findings
In the study, researchers found that about 5% of parents had lost their jobs during the pandemic. Out of those who kept their jobs, 30% of mothers and 40% of fathers saw their incomes shrink.
The study also found that for mothers, their marital and life satisfaction dropped significantly during and after the circuit breaker from 7 April to 1 June last year. Before the pandemic, the mean marital satisfaction score among the mothers was 3.9 on a five-point scale, with five being very satisfied.
However, during and after the circuit-breaker when all non-essential activities were halted and many Singaporeans had to work from home, the mean marital satisfaction score fell to 3.6.
According to The Straits Times, in response to the study’s findings, researchers say that one of the reasons for this drop could be because women had to take on more than their fair share of housework, on top of other stressors the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to our daily lives.
Of course, another reason could be that conflicts arising from work-from-home arrangements and tensions as a result of the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic could have also contributed to this fall in satisfaction.
However, the authors of the study pointed out that regardless of income, the gender gap in terms of housework rose during the circuit breaker and persisted for all families.
The study found that before the circuit breaker, women spent an average of 68 minutes a day on household chores, while men spent 43 minutes a day. During the circuit breaker, this rose to 112 minutes for women and 63 minutes for men. After the circuit breaker, the average was 108 minutes spent per day for women, as compared to the 66 minutes per day for men.
Dr Tan explained, “As people spent more time at home during and after the circuit breaker, the amount of housework that had to be done increased”. She added, “This created an increase in the gender gap as women did most of this extra housework, largely because housework is generally considered ‘women’s work’.”
So much for gender equality.
On the gender gap in terms of childcare, the findings were a little different. Families which had at least one spouse earning S$4,000 or more actually experienced a narrowing gender gap during and after the circuit breaker.
The study found that the difference in time spent for men and women shrank from 125 minutes before the pandemic to 108 minutes during the circuit breaker, then to 79 minutes after the circuit breaker.
According to Dr Tan, “By contrast, even though childcare is also most commonly done by women, men are generally more willing to help out as it may be more rewarding and meaningful.”
If I ever told my parents that doing housework wasn’t meaningful, they would probably kick me out of the house.
Dr Tan also said that while the study is not representative of the married women population in Singapore, it is still noteworthy. She explained that this was because it tracked the same set of respondents before, during and after the circuit breaker, whereas most other studies do not.
Caveat to the Study: Men Not Interviewed
Dr Tan mentioned that the men involved in the study were not interviewed because of budgetary constraints. Instead, data on how they spent their time and other variables were collected from their wives.
Dr Tan added that “As the Government continues to encourage employers to offer flexible work arrangements and fathers to contribute more to child rearing, it is important to take note that the widespread shift to telecommuting coincided with a disproportionate rise in housework burdens on women.”
Gender Equality in S’pore
Addressing the gender gap in household chores, sociologist Tan Ern Ser explained that it could be due to the gender roles men are socialised into playing from childhood.
As Singapore society becomes more affluent and modernised, however, there has been a significant shift towards gender equality.
“In this whole debate on housework, we need to consider a range of factors, and not just who is doing more or less. Couples do need to make rational decisions on how best to respond to their family circumstances. The outcome may look unequal, but it could be the decisions of an egalitarian couple,” said Associate Professor Tan.
“This is not to let men who don’t see housework as part of their joint responsibilities as a couple off the hook, but neither should we be too quick to judge just by looking at the housework gap,” they added.
Head of research and advocacy at the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), Shailey Hingorani, said that during the pandemic, the increase in unpaid labour for women has taken a huge toll on their mental and physical health, as well as employment status, among other things.
“The finding that women’s marital and life satisfaction has dipped does not bode well for these women’s spouses, children and other family members,” said Ms Hingorani. She added, “Unhappy women are not likely to want to stay in their marriages and have children.”
Featured Image: Creativa Images / Shutterstock.com
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