SINGAPORE: In the wake of last week’s report of Singapore’s historic low total fertility rate, Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP’s) Stephanie Tan has weighed in, offering in a Facebook post insights from her own experience.
Ms Tan wrote that she was 28 when she had her first baby, and when the child turned one, she chose to opt for part-time work because she felt she could not give her all, both at home and at work.
“That is the reality of being a full-time working parent: seeing your child only briefly in the morning and for a few hours at night. Personally, that was insufficient for me. I was told the quota for part-time positions was full, and that was when I had to make a choice between the status quo and quitting entirely to become a stay-home parent,” she wrote.
Ms Tan went on to list the factors that may force parents, perhaps women rather than men, to make the difficult choice of working full-time or stop working completely: organisational quotas, unsympathetic bosses, and concerns about career progression or job security.
“Against this lies the backdrop of Singapore’s overall development,” she wrote, adding that most women start working after they graduate, and if they have children, they face the same kind of situation she did.
“How many young women are willing and able to constantly balance their careers with the relentless demands of parenting? It is not easy, period. In fact, it is one of the hardest things to do.
It is hard to see having children as a blessing when the joys of parenting are overshadowed by daily struggles,” wrote Ms Tan, who contested under the PSP in last year’s election, and who is a member of the party’s CEC.
She added that because of these realities, first-time parents rarely go on to have more children. Therefore, any policy aimed at addressing Singapore’s low fertility rate should be holistic, taking into consideration important factors such as cost of living, housing affordability, work-life balance, caregiving, and the pressures created by Singapore’s educational system. Otherwise, the “marriage and parenthood reset” that Minister Indranee Rajah said was necessary “will remain elusive,” she opined.
She zeroed in on caregiving, which is vital to parents who choose to stay in the workforce.
Ms Tan referred to a S$1,250 monthly allowance for parents and grandparents who provide caregiving for young children that PSP chief and former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai proposed last year, as well as increasing paid childcare leave based on the number of children each family has, instead of the current maximum of 6 days each year.
She also called for greater support for families who struggle with infertility, which may occur with older mothers. PSP similarly had proposals to this effect.
“If the Government sees tackling our TFR as an urgent and existential issue, solutions must go beyond increasing one-off cash benefits. While financial benefits may encourage some couples to have more children, the effect is arguably limited,” she wrote. /TISG
