Modernity & Women in Singapore

Previously, men were dominating singapore due to their population size, slowly, the population of women increased the 1920s when women started coming to singapore in search for jobs or to join their husbands. Traditionally, women were required to stay home to be housewives. However, due to reforms in education, women were gradually coming out to seek for economic improvements and independence, moving away from traditional roles. Eventually, women’s opinions and voices were recognised and heard by the public on platforms such as ‘Women’s Corner’ in The Malaya Tribune whereby issues such as freedom, equality, marriage, work and fashion were debated by men and women.

Modernity and change was also portrayed through women’s fashion. Women’s fashion were highly influenced by the West and China. Through exposure to different fashion, hybrid fashion from various ethnic groups was created. women’s roles in the 1920s and 1930s:‘ the new women’ emerged in singapore as well as other counties. The collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 revolution in China led to modernisation of international Chinese communities.

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With modernisation, the social life and activities of women changed. With reforms in education, women were now able to attend schools, participate in charity works and other recreational activities that they were once restricted to. However, despite these changes due to modernity, female modesty such as acceptable swimwear etc was still an ongoing issue and were often debated in the papers. Even though they are allowed more freedom, the attending of schools was still discouraged as well as certain other traditions.

Education for women: With the efforts of Straits Chinese, chinese nationalists and educationalists, education for women became more accepted and encouraged in the 20th century. Before that, education for women were almost non-existent. The education reform movement in 1887 led by Song Ong Siang and Dr Lim Boon Keng, had gradually led to many establishments of girl’s school such as the Methodist Girls’ School and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School in 1930. Subjects taught in these schools included arithmetic, cooking, sewing, reading, writing, geography, world history and physical education. Despite the opportunity given to women for education, they were mostly educated to be deemed worthy of their husbands who were on the other hand given education to elevate their social status. Subjects such as sewing and cooking were vital skills for their future roles as daughters-in-law, wives and mothers.

The working class:affluent households usually employ many servants including a cook, driver, amah to babysit the children as a nanny, maids for housekeep and manservants to run errands. Most households were bound by social boundaries. Men except manservants were not confined to any space, on the other hand, women were confined to the upper floors of the house. During meal times, the family do not eat together as a whole. rather, the men, women, children and the servants all sit separately.Amahs were a group of women in the prewar singapore who asserted their freedom through supporting themselves financial and socially by coming to Singapore from China’s Pearl River Delta. Most amahs underwent a for hee (combing up) ceremony as a socially accepted form of single hood., choosing sworn sisterhood as an alternative to the institution of marriage.