White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development: Louis Chua on more equitable parental leave

Policymakers play a big part in shaping how society views gender stereotypes and parental roles, said MP Louis Chua. So he said he was disappointed that the White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development had “fallen short” on concrete policy changes to encourage fathers to take a more active role in household and caregiving responsibilities, especially around a more equitable distribution of statutory parental leave. Mr Chua noted that Singapore’s two weeks of paid statutory paternity leave means fathers who want to take on a more equal share of child-rearing have to face a direct financial tradeoff. He reiterated the Workers’ Party’s call for shared parental leave of 24 weeks, with a minimum of four weeks granted to the father and possible “bonus number of weeks” awarded if he were to use that full duration. In Parliament on Tuesday (Apr 5), Mr Chua also brought up concerns about the challenges faced by single-parent households as well as on women’s financial literacy and retirement adequacy.