"Pregnancy: A Mother and Company’s Burden" by Selena Liew Hui Yi

The journey of pregnancy should be one of elation, excitement, and exhilaration as a mother awaits the arrival of her newborn. It has no place for a company’s influence, where many view pregnant employees as a trammel to be cut off. Unfortunately in Singapore, pregnancy discrimination in workplaces continues to be a plague that impedes women’s progress in their careers. 

Before one is even hired, it is not uncommon to hear of cases where interviewers ask insensitive questions such as “Do you plan on having kids?” to gauge if a potential hire would require maternity leave. Many would find their job offers rescinded after informing interviewers of their marital status, which they would like to be transparent about to facilitate a smoother transition when applying for maternity leave later on. Ignoring a woman's qualifications or work experiences, she may not be hired purely based on the fact that she can exercise her full legal rights to take maternity leave. 

Taking maternity leave should not be disruptive for a company as they are able to—and should—compensate for an absent worker by either hiring temporary help or by re-distributing the workload. Statistics from our Ministry of State for Manpower (MOM) show that our resident female employment rate increased in the past decade from 54% to 57.7%, fully supporting the fact that more women are entering the workforce— alluding to gender inclusivity making some improvements in Singapore. However, workplace biases targeting women, particularly pregnancy biases, are still a work in progress as according to AWARE, there has been a 48% increase in maternity discrimination cases from 2020 to 2021. Motherhood prejudices have been made painfully aware to Singaporean women, as they are told to toughen up when confiding in seniors at work and are often pushing themselves to their physical limit, despite gynaecologist’s orders to be put on light duty, in order to fulfil work expectations. Where do we draw the line for the harmful effects of work on our body, what more a pregnant mother’s body? These sentiments and worries are commonly shared in local “mummies” support groups across all social media platforms such as Facebook and Telegram.

In a strictly-governed metropolis such as Singapore, there are legislations to mitigate pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. While it works great in theory, it is cold comfort for women. Subtle discrimination, which is unethical but legal, can still easily take place in the workspace. There are numerous reports where employees on maternity leave were unfairly dismissed due to their “poor quota” at work or were “retrenched”, citing a lack of business performance in lieu of the recent pandemic. Moreover, the dismissal of an employee falls into a grey area, as there can be a multitude of reasons that a company can come up with to dismiss an employee to effectively fire a pregnant employee without repercussions by omitting pregnancy as the basis for termination. 

Furthermore, like many other workplace-related discriminations that women face, pregnancy discrimination cases are often underreported for fear of straining relations with employers or causing reputational damage, which would negatively impact future job prospects. Additionally, legislation is ineffective as 

it is uncommon knowledge locally for employees and employers alike on what the boundaries of discriminating against pregnant women are, thus failing to deter discrimination and rendering pregnant women helpless as they lack the knowledge to protect themselves. As evidenced, current legislation is insufficient as it does not clearly state what constitutes pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, which should—but currently does not—include the recruitment process. In its current state, the legislation is much like a “paper law”: it is created just for the sake of being. 

I’ve found pregnancy to be a woman’s most significant challenge as asides from the physical and mental toll it takes on the body, the mother is also expected to juggle both her caregiving duties as well as her career on a delicate balance, often after the birth of her newborn. In Singapore where living costs run high, many families often are dual-income households where both parents are expected to be breadwinners. In spite of her career advancements, a mother is disproportionately expected to take over caregiving duties, confined to her role as a caregiver, due to the traditional perception of a woman we have enshrined locally in our family-oriented society. The journey for Singaporean society to look beyond gender still has a ways to go, but with more light shed on these issues, I hope it empowers the movement and champions change.