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Singapore has suffered from a low fertility rate for decades, with only 1.14 children per woman. The government is trying to remedy this worrying situation by introducing various measures to boost the birth rate in the city-state.
To encourage the involvement of fathers when a child arrives, the duration of paternity leave will double from January 1, 2024. It will thus increase from two to four weeks, as recently declared by the Minister of Finance of Singapore. , Lawrence Wong, during the presentation of the annual budget. Companies will also be able to choose to grant these two additional weeks of leave to young fathers. These days of birth leave will be fully reimbursed by the government to help employees reconcile fulfillment in work and in their personal life.
If paternity leave came into force in 2013 in the city-state, few men use it. Two-thirds of Singaporean dads didn’t use it in 2018, according to The Strait Times. The opinion of others weighs heavily in the choice of new parents in terms of paternity leave. The traditional vision of the “pater familias”—very involved in one’s career, but little in family tasks—remains rooted in Asia, as does the idea that childcare concerns above all women. Added to this is the very special relationship that Singaporeans have with work. Many of them work overtime to be seen well by their manager and their colleagues, even if it means sacrificing their family life.
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Towards parental parity?
This is why Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wants Singaporean companies to encourage their employees to take this compensated rest, symbol of the emergence of a new fatherhood. “We will reflect on this issue later and intend to make [le congé paternité] mandatory in due time. We want father involvement to be the norm in our society.”said Lawrence Wong during his budget speech, according to Bloomberg.
Other measures have also been put in place to promote the involvement of fathers in the home and, more generally, to encourage couples in the city-state to have children. Among them, the increase in the allowance allocated to young parents or the extension of the number of days of unpaid annual leave, so that either parent can take care of the infant.
Charlene Tan, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, hopes that these initiatives will help to strengthen gender equality at the professional level. “Such measures can also help women re-enter the labor market [après leur grossesse] and increase their chances of having empathetic and understanding colleagues who will replace them when needed”, she comments in a Tribune for Channel News Asia.
Is parental parity in Singaporean companies imminent? Nothing is less sure. But the government’s initiatives to boost the birth rate in the city-state are inspiring other Asian countries, worried about seeing their populations age. Japan, for example, allows its employees to take paternity leave for a maximum of one year, compared to a year and a half in South Korea. But it is still necessary that mentalities evolve in terms of parenthood.