RISING living costs are reshaping Malaysian families, with activists questioning whether the narrative of “empowerment” fully reflects reality.
Are dual-income households in Malaysia truly a sign of empowerment or simply a reflection of economic strain?
With wages stagnating and the costs of housing, childcare, healthcare and daily necessities continuing to rise, many families say living on a single income is no longer realistic.
Young couples are increasingly delaying parenthood, while others question whether the current economic model adequately supports family life.
Against this backdrop, gender equity advocate Tehmina Kaoosji argues that framing caregiving as a matter of “choice” obscures a deeper structural problem.
“Mothering is work. Full stop,” she said, calling it a misrepresentation to frame caregiving as merely a lifestyle choice, moral inclination or private sacrifice outside the economy.
According to Tehmina, mothering is productive, skilled and time-intensive labour without which societies and financial markets would not function. Yet it remains systematically excluded from definitions of “work,” productivity measurements, and mechanisms for economic security.
“Most households simply cannot afford to live on one income,” she said, noting that even when one parent - overwhelmingly the mother - wants or needs to step back to provide care, doing so is often impossible.
She added that workplace structures have not evolved to reflect caregiving realities.
Short maternity leave, limited paternity leave, inflexible working hours and weak childcare systems push women into a double burden: full participation in the labour market while continuing to shoulder the majority of unpaid care at home.
“This is not accidental. It is an economic model that has historically relied on women’s unpaid labour to subsidise both the state and the economy," she said.
The imbalance is visible in the data. Malaysia’s time-use statistics show women spend about 3.6 hours a day on unpaid care work, compared to 2.2 hours for men.
Across Southeast Asia, comparable data cited by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicate that women spend roughly three times more hours on unpaid care and domestic work than men.
“That is not a personal choice gap. It is a structural design problem," Tehmina said.
As the costs of housing, childcare, food, transport and healthcare rise faster than wages, dual-income arrangements increasingly function as coping mechanisms rather than lifestyle preferences. Yet care work remains unavoidable.
When the state and the market fail to provide affordable systems, responsibility falls back onto women and households.
Younger women and couples, she observed, are increasingly unwilling to accept these conditions, delaying or forgoing childbearing in the process.
“The question is no longer whether women should work,” she said. “It is whether our economy recognises the work women are already doing.”
Universiti Putra Malaysia Putra Business School Associate Professor Dr Ida Md Yasin highlighted another limitation of current economic thinking: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations.
She said GDP typically measures consumption, investment, government expenditure and net exports but does not account for unpaid caregiving work.
“The contributions of individuals who stay home to care for children, elderly parents or sick family members are not reflected in GDP figures,” she said.
Although such work is not conventionally included in economic statistics, she noted that it could be quantified.
For example, sending a child aged one or two to a childcare centre - which may cost RM500 to RM600 per month - could serve as a reference point for estimating the economic value of caregiving.
Ida said women should be enabled to contribute to both the economy and their families.
She noted that female enrolment in universities exceeds that of males, indicating a strong pool of educated women who can participate fully in national development.
She said supportive government policies could help young mothers pursue careers while raising families.
Without adequate support, declining population growth could become a concern. Although Malaysia’s population growth rate remains positive, it is trending downward.
Ida emphasised that Malaysia must maintain a balanced demographic structure, avoiding the situation seen in countries such as Japan and South Korea, where ageing populations have resulted in a higher proportion of elderly people compared to the young.
“To ensure a productive future, we need a healthy ratio between younger and older generations.
“Policies should encourage young mothers to have children by easing the burden of childcare and kindergarten costs,” she said.