extracted from CNA.
SINGAPORE : The total number of registered marriages might have
increased by 1 percent last year, according to the latest
Department of Statistics' Report on Marriages and Divorces.
But that same report also says marriage rates have fallen across
all age groups in the last decade (1994 to 2004).
This means that Singaporeans are still delaying marriage, and the
number of singles is set to grow even bigger.
More than 16,100 Singapore men got married last year, but only
about 12,500 of them to Singaporean women.
The rest - some 3,500 - took foreign brides.
The report also showed that compared to 10 years ago, more
Singapore men - with secondary education or less - married women
who were better educated.
But that, according to sociologist Professor Paulin Straughan, does
not mean they have overcome the stigma of 'marrying upwards'.
In fact, fewer Singapore women married 'downwards' in the last
decade.
So where did those men find their brides?
Possibly from the region, says Professor Straughan.
Many of them are well-educated women who see marrying Singapore men
as a form of social mobility, and a way out of the poverty cycle
back home.
Professor Paulin Straughan, Department of Sociology, National
University of Singapore, said, "Rather than a mindset change,
they're actually looking outwards and marrying foreign women,
who're willing to still play a traditional role because their
Singapore counterparts are not willing to settle for these
roles...that is to become home care givers, domestic managers,
focused on childcare and eldercare.
"That tells me that they're still holding on to traditional values.
So that leaves older single women in some kind of a bind, because
then where do they go in order to find a spouse? So that's why the
statistics indicated these two groups are finding it harder to get
married and so age at first marriage (is) going up."
And where 20 years ago, graduate women were said to be the ones who
delayed marriage, now it is the less-educated who are marrying
later.
Professor Straughan said, "Both men and women are delaying
marriage, so the age at first marriage for both the brides and the
grooms with primary school education or lower, is high...much
higher than those in the university cohort."
In fact, non-Muslim brides and grooms with primary or no education
were the oldest -
women tied the knot only when they were about 30 years old, and men
when they were 37.
In contrast, among the Muslim brides, university graduates were the
oldest - with an average marrying age of 28 years.
And the decade-old trends of delayed marriages and rising
singlehood are set to continue, with serious implications on social
planning.
Professor Straughan said, "It means that if we're planning, for
example, services for the elderly for the future, we really have to
put a lot more in place than what we have now because you're going
to have a lot more older people, older adults who have no spouses
and children to fall back on."
The good news, however, is that the divorce rate has dropped from
an all-time high in 2003.
More people are also remarrying, a sign that Singaporeans may have
overcome the stigma of divorce.
Sociologists say, going forward, Singapore needs to continue to
push for better work-life balance, and promote marriage and family
values as worthy investments, as equally important as one's career.
- CNA/ms
