This letter comes a few days after a conversation in the office, where i discovered that single-mothers aren’t entitled to maternity leave, and that singles who adopt do not have childcare leave. I find it highly unfair to people who are already in a difficult position.
Imagine if someone my age in her mid-twenties, with a full-time, decent paying job fell pregnant. And though her boyfriend did not want to take any responsibility for the child, she decided to keep the baby. What then? Government policies that try so hard to reinforce the traditional family structure make it such that she would have to quit her full time job to give birth. Upon doing so, she has to struggle to feed herself and the baby because she has no income. With no money, she can’t send the kid to childcare, so she can only settle in part-time jobs in order to care for the baby. How then can she fully contribute to society?
Considering policies that have attempted to promote the traditional family structure of 2 married, heterosexual parents with a child/children have been largely unsuccessful or have seen little success, perhaps it’s time the government reconsidered their position on this.
Arresting the slide in fertility rate
I APPLAUD the Association of Women for Action and Research's (Aware) advocacy of paternity leave ("Give dads baby leave, says Aware"; Feb 10).
Our fertility rate of 1.16 last year should ring alarm bells in the minds of those who want to see the nation still in existence half a century from now.
Norway's fertility rate of 1.8 is one of the highest in Europe. Norway subsidises childbearing heavily and there is a one-year parental leave with full wage compensation. It has quality daycare for babies and the father's involvement with children has been promoted by reserving at least 10 weeks of parental leave for him.
In Norway, there is an imperceptible social trend to reject traditional marriage but this is counteracted by a large number of births to cohabitants. This phenomenon may be due to the fact that women are not overly afraid of single motherhood because they have their own resources and the country has supportive policies.
It is not likely that our Government will lend its support to out-of-wedlock fertility but if paternity leave is promulgated, then the slide of our fertility rate could be decelerated even if it is not reversed.
Heng Cho Choon
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