Straits Times put on the headline of…

Straits Times put on the headline of “Radical moves to help new mums – MARCH 3, 2004“. My quick comment is that all the measures taken are all focused on woman as the only person who is responsible in making babies and taking care of them. No emphasis are given to push equal role between father and mother. The division of labor: men as sole breadwinner and women as “mothers” (in classical terms), is still there. The proposed policies are all focused on the women.

Perhaps those policies, (i.e. maternity leave) will aggravate the position of the potential mothers, in the sense that they will be less desired by the employers.

I personally think the policies are put on the wrong emphasis. As I have discussed with Pierre few days back, it is easy to encourage people to make more babies:

• Emphasise on equal role between men and women. Men should be encouraged to take more role in child’s upbringing. Let ‘unusual situation’ such as having the woman as breadwinner and stay-at-home husband be happened. The policies must be focused on the long-term effect, not just at ‘maternity’ portion.
  
• Less working hours, for both men and women, to ensure more quality time with family. Europeans work for 36-40 hours per week, having saturday and sunday off.