Key insights and data highlights
What stability means for lowered income women in Singapore
Insight #1
Stability in everyday life isn’t about having a perfect balance, but having enough steadiness and resources to keep moving forward when disruptions occur. Women’s trajectories to stability differ because they each have unique life circumstances.
Different starting point
From the get-go, we see that women have different starting points. For example, the Coaching Support group had a higher proportion of employed women while unemployed women were more represented in the Income Support group. This translates to various income levels for each woman, and income trajectory across the three surveys.
This baseline difference already shaped outcomes from survey 1 – for example, the Income Support group reported a higher percentage of Caregiving support in red, while the Coaching Support group has more of this indicator in the yellow and green.
Non-linear progress
Stability does not improve in a straight line. Indicators shifted at different rates between the two 6-month survey intervals, underscoring that lower income women’s paths are uneven, as disruptions occur and they may not have the resources to bounce back.
Income Support group
Between Survey 1 and 2:
Between Survey 2 and 3:
Why stability matters
We see from the stories that stability gives lower income women the mental bandwidth to make trade-offs thoughtfully – balancing caregiving, work and long-term goals. When life is more stable, aspirations such as furthering education, securing housing, or career advancement become achievable (see Lily’s story). Instability by contrast makes every decision costlier. Urgent issues like insecure housing, precarious jobs, or caregiving push aside longer-term plans. Change rarely sticks when instability eats away at a women’s resources and attention, no matter how strong her motivation (see Tanya’s story).