Women have four months maternity leave and men are able to apply three days of paternity leave. No extra paternity leave was given to men because according to PM Lee Hsien Loong there was feedback by women that they prefer the extra month of leave ( previously it was three months) to be given to them rather than their spouse. Maybe women think that they would do a better job in looking after their children. Who knows? However, is this enough? Will it benefit mothers if extra paternity leave is given to their husbands? Before we can pursue this issue, we have to examine various reasons why women or men may or may not like extra paternity leave be given to men. I have divided them into seven categories.
First Category : Women who enjoy four months of maternity leave and do not mind staying at home to look after their children
These women are happy to have this incentive. It gives them more time to look after their children. They believe that a woman should be the one’s looking after their children.
They would not worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected. This is true if they work in civil service agencies or statutory boards as these companies will comply to the government’s directive. However, if they work for a private company, there are higher chances that they may worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected as some of these companies do not like their employees to go on long leave. There are however labour laws in Singapore to protect women who are wrongly dismissed because they are pregnant.
They may not see the need for their husbands to take any extra paternity leave to look after their children.
They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them. If women worry about these issues affecting them, there is also a very high chance that they may worry that these same issues will affect their husbands as well. Company pay women less because they have maternity leave. What is there to prevent them from doing the same thing to men if they are given extra paternity leave. Therefore, it would be better for them to apply maternity leave because men’s salaries are usually higher then women’s salary. Even if their husbands salary is less then theirs, they would still prefer to apply for maternity leave just so to prevent their husbands from getting a cut in their salary as these would cause family problems because their family income will be affected.
Second Category : Women who thinks that looking after their children are their duty and they would do it better than their men
These women prefer that they look after their children themselves.
First Category : Women who enjoy four months of maternity leave and do not mind staying at home to look after their children
These women are happy to have this incentive. It gives them more time to look after their children. They believe that a woman should be the one’s looking after their children.
They would not worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected. This is true if they work in civil service agencies or statutory boards as these companies will comply to the government’s directive. However, if they work for a private company, there are higher chances that they may worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected as some of these companies do not like their employees to go on long leave. There are however labour laws in Singapore to protect women who are wrongly dismissed because they are pregnant.
They may not see the need for their husbands to take any extra paternity leave to look after their children.
They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them. If women worry about these issues affecting them, there is also a very high chance that they may worry that these same issues will affect their husbands as well. Company pay women less because they have maternity leave. What is there to prevent them from doing the same thing to men if they are given extra paternity leave. Therefore, it would be better for them to apply maternity leave because men’s salaries are usually higher then women’s salary. Even if their husbands salary is less then theirs, they would still prefer to apply for maternity leave just so to prevent their husbands from getting a cut in their salary as these would cause family problems because their family income will be affected.
Second Category : Women who thinks that looking after their children are their duty and they would do it better than their men
These women prefer that they look after their children themselves.
They may want the independence in looking after their children.
They may not trust their husbands in looking after their children.
They may have the thinking that a woman’s role is to look after their children and that they are the best one’s for their job.
They may not see why men should be given extra paternity leave. They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them.
Third Category : Women who prefer that men have extra paternity leave so that they can go back to work earlier and their men may stay home to look after their children
These women may believe in the equality of women and men.
They may prefer that their men stay home to look after their children. Men in Sweden has no qualms in staying at home to look after their children while their wives go out and work.
They would prefer to go back to work as to improve their work performance. They may be afraid that too long a break may affect their chances of getting a job promotion and some may fear of job lost ( losing of job applies to private companies ).
Third Category : Women who prefer that men have extra paternity leave so that they can go back to work earlier and their men may stay home to look after their children
These women may believe in the equality of women and men.
They may prefer that their men stay home to look after their children. Men in Sweden has no qualms in staying at home to look after their children while their wives go out and work.
They would prefer to go back to work as to improve their work performance. They may be afraid that too long a break may affect their chances of getting a job promotion and some may fear of job lost ( losing of job applies to private companies ).
They tend to lead the household and make household decisions. However, there is a chance that they may not trust their men to look after their children so the second category may apply to them also.
Fourth Category : Women who may not like their maternity leave to be shared with their husbands. For example, two months of maternity leave for her and the other two months for him
These women are the ones that really treasure their four months of maternity leave. They would prefer that the extra month of leave (previously they could only apply for 3 months of maternity leave) be given to them rather to their spouses.
They may be looking for a break from work.
They may think that they are in better position in looking after their own children.
They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them.
They may not see the need for men to have extra paternity leave because they may believe that it is a woman’s job to look after the children ( due to way they have been brought up as a women to know what the duties of a wife should be ).
Fifth Category : Men who may not want to have extra paternity leave
These men may think that looking after children is a woman’s job.
These men think that they are the one’s that must provide the financial stability for the family. Therefore they must work. If they do not work or take too much leave, their job performance will be affected and have less chance for job promotion. If they bring in less cash, the financial stability of the family will be affected more so if both spouses are not high income earners.
They may argue with their wives that there is no need to take extra paternity leave especially if they have a maid helping to look after their children. They may use the excuse of the chances of their job performances being affected if they apply for extra paternity leave as well.
Wives may argue back that they need more help or that they want to go back to work earlier but in a patriarchal society like Singapore, women are viewed as those that should stay home and bring up the children. In – laws ( husband side ) may interfere in the argument in telling wives that it is their duty to stay home to look after their children. Wives may feel guilty and not to want to cause any unhappiness. They may argue for awhile and feel angry but they will give in eventually.
Sixth Category : Men who like to have extra paternity leave and do not mind taking care of their children while their wives go out and work
These men believe that women and men should have equal rights. Most of these men are foreign men but there is still a handful of Singaporean men who are willing to stay home to look after their children. Therefore being house husbands. Why is this so? Well, Singapore is a patriarchal society therefore women are viewed as the one’s that should stay home and look after their children, therefore they should have maternity leave. These values have been inculcated in Singaporean Women from a very early age. The men are taught to be the head of the household and be in charge of household decisions. Even though children are now taught to share household duties, boys have more chances in escaping from doing household duties by making excuses like they have homework to do or that their favourite television program is about to begin. Girls may not have the same opportunities as boys.
Foreign men on the other hand are taught to share household duties from young. They are taught about equality between a woman and a man. Of course there are still exceptions to the cause however foreign men are more willing to look after their children and will mostly be the ones in favour of extra paternity leave. Men in Sweden have no qualms in being household husbands.
In a company in Singapore that I know of, their Australian Marketing Director and their Irish Chief Technology Officer each brought their respective babies to the office time to time to look after and nurse them because their wives do not have time to look after them. Their wives are just as capable as them yet they had no qualms in looking after their children. I wish to see the day that Singaporean men will do that. If extra paternity leave is given to both foreign and local men, then these men can take leave to stay home to look after their children.
Seventh Category : How would companies feel if men are given extra paternity leave? Is it going to affect their profits? Would they revise their salary paying scheme?
Companies may not favour extra paternity leave being given to men. They will complain that it will affect their bottom line. Furthermore companies may revise their salary scheme; cutting men’s salary for those men who opt to apply for extra paternity leave. Companies already pay women less because of their maternity leave scheme. If men are also given the extra paternity leave, they will feel justified in paying men less. If men bring in less income, this may affect their family financial stability especially if both spouses are not high income earners.
Companies have claimed that it would be more costly to allow men to take more that a month off work than it would be to allow women to do so because there is a bigger pool of men in the work force. Statistics have shown that 57% of the 1.9 million people in the resident workforce of Singaporeans and Permanent residents are men. Men hold higher salaries and senior positions than women. Men earn an average of S$4,335 per month where else women earn on the average of S$3,148 per month. The impact of men taking extra paternity leave is greater.
However, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. The government is still looking into how to give men extra paternity leave.
How could this initiative be implemented?
Surveys can be conducted to examine Singaporeans attitudes and views on whether men should have extra paternity leave. We need to survey a rather large sample of men and women so that we can cover the various categories of women and men I have indicated in this essay. Having a large sample will represent the voice of the majority.
As mention earlier, one of the reasons why the government did not give men extra paternity leave because due to feedback, women preferred to have the extra month leave rather then letting their spouse have it. A survey could be conducted on why they prefer to have it and see whether their mindset could be changed.
For this initiative to be implemented there must be a good number of supports by women and men. If there is minority support for the initiative, then it would be difficult to implement the initiative. The mindsets and attitudes of Singaporeans need to be changed also. It would not be easy because in an Asian society like Singapore, women are socially obligated to be the household guardians and caretakers of the children. Men are obligated to be the head of the household and to provide the financial means for the family. I am not saying it is wrong to believe in these values but we should be more flexible and try to help the women of our society in any way we can. After all they are the one who have to suffer during child birth so the most we can do is to make their life easier and happy. Road shows and public education could be conducted to educated Singaporeans about the benefits of extra paternity leave for men. A lot of work has to be done but the good news is that the government is still open to the idea of giving paternity leave to men. I hope in the future this initiative would be implemented.
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