Mirror, mirror, on the wall...
WANTED: Young mums to make babies.
UNWANTED: Mums, having made babies, wishing to go back to work.
That seems to be the mother of all predicaments for the Singapore mum. Encouraged by the Government to marry early and make babies, discouraged by employers from getting back to work, what is she to do?
As a fresh graduate seven years ago, I went for several job interviews. One question popped up regularly: 'Are you married with kids?'
Perhaps the interviewers were trying to make small talk. But I couldn't help thinking that my marital/fertility status was a critical employment criterion.
Friends who have recently gone for job interviews say they sometimes encounter similar questions.
Events co-ordinator A L Chan, 29, said: 'Some employers have the mindset that if you have a husband and kids, you're likely to be less dedicated to your job. So the younger you are or the further you are from marriage, the better for them.
'But the flipside may also be true - that young and single people have fewer financial burdens and may be more inclined to job-hop.'
The Government wants women with grown-up children to go back to work. And MP Irene Ng, who sits on a national panel focused on helping women get back to work, believes many housewives want to work.
At a job fair for women organised by the North-east Community Development Council last month, she said 800 women turned up for the 500 vacancies.
OBSTACLES
But many housewives who want to rejoin the workforce face familiar roadblocks:
They can't find a job near home but have to rush home in time to cook dinner for their families; They want part-time and flexible hours but bosses won't budge; Their skills have become obsolete; They have no confidence going back to a non-domestic environment.
Then there's the age-old problem - age - which means a double whammy: You're a woman and old? Off you go to the back of the queue.
My mother saw a 40-something housewife being turned away for a shop assistant position at the neighbourhood bakery.
The woman was too old, the bakery owner said. Also, not pretty enough. She had quit her receptionist job after her husband had a heart attack four years ago. She decided to work again after he died. But she faced one rejection after another.
A few days later, the bakery owner hired a sweet-looking woman in her 20s.
Businessman Ken Seah, 31, admits he may hesitate hiring a middle-aged woman with kids.
'Single women don't have as many distractions outside of work,' he said. 'Women who quit their jobs to take care of kids and then go back to work might still be distracted.'
Are employers like Mr Seah and the bakery owner the problem?
THE BOTTOMLINE
Not when you understand the reality of their priority: It is not national service, it is not empathy; Their bottomline is, simply, the bottomline.
Can the twain ambitions - the Government for babies and working women and the bosses for profits - meet?
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies sociologist Terence Chong said: '(The policies) follow a 'one size fits all' agenda. Like all social groups, the Government has specific expectations from women - marry earlier, have more children, and remain economically active. These expectations are embedded in the policies. Until the Government lets go of these expectations, policies will continue to reflect these expectations.'
But Ms Ng believes it is the 'marketplace that needs to adjust to the changing social landscape'. She said: 'Employers can do more to make the workplace more family-friendly and provide part-time and flexible work arrangements.'
Is legislation, much like laws being considered to keep older workers working longer, the answer?
I'd hate for the Government to introduce another re-employment law. How would you, as a woman, feel if an employer tells you: You're hired because the law says I have to, not because I want to.
Hire me based on merit. But first, Mr Employer, understand that you can profit from a woman's merit.
The bakery incident made me realise that my 56-year-old mother, too, would not have been able to get that job if she wanted to work.
Which is inexplicable since this is the same woman who, among other things, endured nine months of pain to give me life, woke up in the middle of the night to feed me, put up with my tantrums, and put me through school.
Is there a more difficult job than that?
If the problem is employers' mindsets, here's one way to look at it: The next time Mr Employer hesitates hiring a mother, all he'd need to be assured of her suitability is to think of the most indispensable person in his life - the woman responsible for making Mr Employer the boss...
source:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...41705,00.html? 
Are mums the least employable of all? 
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