Gender Disarmed: Article Analysis

Brilliant Essays
The article, Gender Disarmed: How Gendered Policies Produce Gender-Neutral Policies in Singapore by Youyenn Teo is an insightful read. Teo begins her article with the ideal and traditional roles, males and females uphold in their family and nation. These stereotypes and categorization are founded on traditional values and government policies. It can be argued that Singapore and her policies are, sometimes built on Confucius beliefs (Moyer, 2015). As such, many Singaporeans thus acknowledge the government’s efforts in safeguarding traditional beliefs (Teo, 2009) and would also align their beliefs and perspectives with them (Teo, 2009). Therefore, Singaporeans must be willing to view things from different perspectives other than those offered …show more content…
As Confucius would say, “A woman’s duty is to not take control” but “Woman’s greatest duty is to produce a son” (Reese, 2016). With more women being granted opportunities to study and participating in the workforce, is such a saying still relevant in today’s context? Traditionally, women are known to love and care, taking up the caregiver role (Sanghani, 2014), while men, express love for the family through more distant means (Farrell, 2001). A society where male patriarchy exists. Such gender roles still persist as a survey done by the National University of Singapore’s Social Work Department on 323 family caregivers shows that 94% are women (NUS (Kalyani), …show more content…
2017. International Women’s Day in Singapore: 20 women who truly inspire us. Retrieved on 9 October 2017 http://thehoneycombers.com/singapore/international-womens-day-in-singapore-20-women-who-truly-inspire-us-leaders-entrepreneurs-artists-designers-musicians-bartenders/ Ministry for Social and
Family Development. 2017. MSF: Unwed mothers will not get housing and Baby Bonus Cash Gift even if biological child adopted. Retrieved on 9 October 2017 https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/05/25/msf-unwed-mothers-will-not-get-housing-and-baby-bonus-cash-gift-even-if-biological-child-adopted/

Lee HL. 2005. Unwed Mothers. Retrieved on 9 October 2017 https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/topic.jsp?currentTopicID=00001168-WA¤tPubID=00004701-WA&topicKey=00004701-WA.00001168-WA_1%2B%2B

Berset-Price V. 2015. Rules Are Meant To Be Broken: The Future of Singapore. Retrieved on 9 October 2017 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-bersetprice/rules-are-meant-to-be-bro_b_8331002.html Chan B. 2014. Ivan Heng weds his partner of 18 years on a "perfect British summer's day". Retrieved on 9 October 2017.

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