Experience of Time Poverty among Singaporean Mothers with Young Children: A Mixed-methods Qualitative Study

Time poverty disproportionately affects women, who shoulder the combined burden of paid and unpaid work. Relatively few studies have explored women’s subjective experiences of time poverty. This study used a mixed-methods triangulation design integrating semi-structured interviews, time-use diaries, and questionnaires with 32 Singaporean mothers with young children to explore how they experience time poverty.

While nearly all participants were time-poor, spending more than 12 hours per day working, subjective experiences varied, highlighting the importance of perceived control over time and invisible mental labour. Participants reported limited personal time, sacrificing sleep or leisure, or feeling guilty for taking personal time. Transitional periods were the most time-pressured, and multitasking dominated daily routines, with some participants multitasking for over ten hours per day. Participants expressed a desire to reduce time spent on paid and domestic work while increasing time for sleep, leisure, exercise, socialising, and quality time with family.

The findings highlight that time poverty encompasses both measurable labour and invisible cognitive burdens. Addressing maternal time poverty may therefore require not only reducing women’s unpaid work burdens but also reducing their mental labour, increasing scheduling flexibility, and addressing the normative and structural constraints that shape women’s time use.