Dreadful Irony

I see nothing wrong with being a pregnant, single, unmarried woman.

Instead, I see courage. I see faith and hope. Most of all, I see a woman's determination to tread this path strewn with obstacles.

The problem is, while our society might accept a pregnant, unmarried woman, the Singapore laws blatantly discriminate against pregnant, unmarried women.

Don't pregnant, unmarried women go through the same pains and angst of being a mother-to-be? If employed, why shouldn't they be entitled to the 12 weeks of maternity leave without prejudice?

Why require unmarried, employed mothers to marry the fathers within 3 months of the birth or they forfeit the 12 weeks of paid maternity leave?

Don't even get me started on who qualifies to receive baby bonuses. A whole website is dedicated to telling you that if you're an unmarried mother, you're social pariah.

But yes, they still want your vote in the general elections.

No 'intelligent and educated' woman would want to put herself in this situation in Singapore. Not willingly, at least. If a pregnant woman choose not to marry, then isn't it obvious that she doesn't view the father a fit husband?

The laws suggest marriage to the father. Without considering the ripple effect. Which basically translates into a loveless marriage that is a legally binding union for all the wrong reasons. Which, imho, can't possibly last very long!

Then, mainstream media rushed to print grave commentaries about divorce rates rising in this island nation.

Oh the irony.

Never mind if the offspring of social pariah turn out to be future geniuses who can work their way up the meritocracy ladder. That's never a consideration. And perhaps in the viewpoints of the powers that be, these offpsring won't be very smart as they are probably not the offspring of 'intelligent and educated' women.

By the power of reasonable logic, 'intelligent and educated' women ought to be holding managerial / executive / 'confidential' positions not covered under our Employment Act. Which would deter them from being unmarried mothers and effectively weeding out undesirable offspring.

So, only the not-so-intelligent-employed women may be granted maternity benefits by their company if the latter so choose.

Do you see social engineering at its brilliant best?

And that, people, is how they keep the social fabric intact.

And thus, in this day and age, I have earning power. But if I choose to be an unmarried mother, I better make sure I earn truckloads of moolah to poo-poo at all the government handouts.

In other words, if I have moolah, I can say, "screw your employment maternity benefits."

Bottomline, I don't like being subtly threatened by our oh-so-cleverly-worded shrewd little laws.

I would like the freedom to choose whether I want to have children. Marriage and the requisite husband notwithstanding. I don't like this idea of being granted only a structural freedom insofar that I follow social norms set by the government.

And in these unyielding circumstances, I've more or less made my choice when it comes to marriage and having children. Or not.
(Religion aside please.)

Because I neither see nor understand the difference between 1 unmarried couple living together in love and happily bringing up a child, as opposed to 1 divorced couple on acrimonous/not-great terms bringing up a child.