Risk, gender equity, and the pro-natal policy package: comparing France and Singapore

• Main Author: Yusoff, Yusfarhain
• Other Authors: Ana Cristina Dias Alves
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71936
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

France’s fertility rate of 1.93 births (2015) per woman, close to the global replacement rate of 2.0, is an anomaly for developed states like it. The French state approach to boosting fertility will resonate with Singapore, as both states advocate pro-natal policies with extensive government intervention, albeit with significantly different results. Singapore has faced consistently falling fertility rates since the 1960s with a current fertility rate of 1.25 (2015), despite the implementation of generous policies aimed at reducing the economic cost of having children. A comparative analysis of France and Singapore’s pro-natal policies is conducted, using a framework proposed by Peter McDonald that explains fertility decline through rational choice, risk aversion, and gender equity. This analysis ultimately aims to investigate the costs and risks potential parents associate with child-rearing, how the perception of such factors differ according to gender, and how this has impacted childbearing decisions in Singapore and France.