Women may never get it

A follow-up article in The Straits Times today by Li Xueying [The Men Don't Get It. Why? Paternity leave would hit the bottom line hard, say companies] details some of the reasoning behind why policy makers decided against extending paternity leave to fathers, at least for now.

Apparently, the government had gathered feedback from women, who indicated that "they would prefer that the extra month of leave be given to them, rather than to their spouses" because "they want to spend more time with their babies." I'm curious whether any men had also been surveyed since only the female viewpoint was shared. Also, who exactly were these women and how many of them were there? How was this survey conducted? It would really interest me to find out more details about this feedback.

According to the same article, analysts suspect that economics too had played a part. Aside from the fact that men comprise 57% of the Singapore workforce (which by the way includes PRs too), compared to 43% of women (a difference of 14% or 281,000 individuals), men are also paid 27% more than women on average, suggesting that they hold more senior positions and that their absence from companies would have a greater impact on the organizations' daily operations.

So, what should we infer from these arguments? That females are more expendable than their male colleagues, and that there would be no point in promoting women to more senior positions since it would be more costly for the company when they take their maternity leave?

Puh-leeze!