Government agencies communicate via. Trusted website s. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. It was 3 July Chooi Yong was working at the lathe machine when voices and footsteps along the corridor signaled their approach. She hurriedly smoothed her hair and straightened her apron just as the men entered the cabinet-making room.
The next day, the Singapore Free Press reported the visit with an accompanying photograph of the education minister speaking to an intently listening Chooi Yong. In , on the eve of self-government, the female labour force participation rate FLFPR stood at a mere Nearly half of the female workforce was concentrated in the community, social and personal services sector, where most engaged in paid domestic work. What work can we do? No one will employ you.
The men go and work. Girls never worked. Certainly the nature of housework was more varied and laborious back then without modern conveniences such as running water and electricity, gas fires and home appliances. The situation soon changed.
Accordingly, the Charter included provisions for monogamy, legal equality and shared familial responsibilities of husband and wife for divorce, custody and maintenance, as well as the protection of women in cases of domestic abuse and sexual offences.
It was not until after Independence that the number of women in the labour force began to rise steadily with increased job opportunities brought by state-led industrialisation. However, as will be made evident later in this essay, the employment of women in Singapore was primarily a practical response to exigencies of the national and household economy, rather than a matter of their fundamental right to work. Separation from Malaysia in pitched Singapore into an economic quandary.
