To Share, Or Not To Share?

Should you discuss your childbearing plans with a potential employer? Here’s how to navigate that tricky territory, so you can be empowered to make the right decisions.

- Balvinder Sandhu

Going for job interviews can be stressful, especially when you’re not aware of what your potential employer is legally allowed to ask you.

For women, some of these questions may concern childbearing plans. The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) lists the guidelines for what is considered a “fair job interview”. Set up in 2006 by the Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress, and the Singapore National Employers Federation, TAFEP promotes the adoption of fair, responsible and progressive employment practices.

One of the questions employers should not ask is, “Are you planning to have children soon?” But this doesn’t mean that they won’t broach the topic. In fact, out of over 3,000 women who participated in Her World’s What Women Want Survey in 2020, 25 per cent of them were asked about their childbearing plans by a recruiter or potential employer. Of these women, 72 per cent mentioned their plans, while the other 28 per cent chose not to reveal them. And, among those who had childbearing plans, about one-third chose not to tell the recruiter or potential employer about it.

FIELDING THOSE QUESTIONS

What should you do if you find yourself in such a situation?

“According to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, it is discriminatory to ask an interviewee about their childbearing plans. Employees must be recruited purely on the basis of merit, and their family or caregiving responsibilities should not be factored into recruitment,” says Shailey Hingorani, head of Aware’s Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Advisory.