Many singaporean families still exist with a working father and a housewife, due to the conservative asian culture from centuries past. However, this is changing, as young women commonly wield their qualifications and join the workforce, putting career ahead of family. Then they get 4 months of maternity leave when they finally marry and have children – because they want to return to their jobs. So we see many families with both parents at work, but in either case, the father works away from home.
So it seems 4 months of Paternity leave is an excellent proposition at first. After all, who wouldn’t like an extra 4 months of leave? What more, the father is able to be at home to help care for the baby.
Nonetheless there are economic ramifications, as the report described. Employers can’t have their workers disappear every other day – it would be a major inconvenience to find temporary replacements. otherwise the rest of the staff will have to take over extra work left from the man on leave. Enough such workplace disruptions occur because of NS reservist call-ups.
What about gender equality? Ultimately that is an illusion. Men and women are different – biologically and in the roles that they play. As it is laid out in theBible, it is primarily the man’s role to take leadership and work to provide for the family. On the other hand it is no shame for the woman to remain at home and raise the children - not precluding other forms of work. As long as both parents carry out their roles faithfully (but not to the point of pre-occupation), that is the way the family unit was designed to function, and that is nothing wrong.
