Singapore Airlines’ pregnancy pivot should set an example to others

In the Hollywood hit Crazy Rich Asians, the main character flies into Singapore’s Changi airport and delights in the fact that it has a butterfly garden and a movie theatre. JFK airport in New York City is “just salmonella and despair”, she remarks.

Changi, which opened in 1981, topped the annual Skytrax World Airport Awards for eight consecutive years before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. And if it sets a standard for airports, then national flag carrier Singapore Airlines is the airborne embodiment of that modern and cosmopolitan image.

This is why the enduring focus on the “Singapore Girl” — a term for female cabin crew coined in a marketing campaign 50 years ago — has been increasingly called into question by critics as outdated.

Stories abound about the airline’s rules for female cabin crew. On chat rooms and blogs, current and former flight attendants offer advice to those preparing for interviews and training. Many discuss the need to stay below a certain body mass index level and detail how their make-up palette and even hairstyles are chosen for them, while others warn that candidates — who are advised to be “humble” and “elegant” — may be rejected for having a mole on their face.

Singapore Airlines is not the only flag carrier to hire attractive women, of course. But many in the city-state were shocked last month to learn that, up until this year, Singapore Girls were fired when they became pregnant. In October, the airline announced that it had dropped a policy that required female cabin crew to leave the airline after the first trimester of pregnancy.

The change means pregnant cabin crew also receive paid maternity leave for up to 16 weeks before being automatically added to the next flight roster, bringing Singapore Airlines in line with other local employers.

The company said cabin crew “may choose to work in a temporary ground attachment” during their pregnancy, although they would have to apply for such roles. “All eligible cabin crew who have applied for ground positions so far have been offered available positions suitable for their expertise,” it said.

“When you put all of this together — the Singapore Girl, the fact they were one of the last global airlines to hire female pilots, the pregnancy rules — the optics are not great,” said one director at a women’s rights organisation in Singapore.

Singapore Airlines did not provide a reason for the change. Advocacy groups suggest that the airline, which laid off thousands of employees during the pandemic, is desperate to retain staff to meet the rebound in global travel. Changi is one of the world’s busiest airports and a top transfer hub for Asia. Singapore Airlines this month reported a record quarterly operating profit of S$678mn ($493mn).

The Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), a non-governmental organisation based in Singapore, said in a statement that it was “surprised” that the carrier had continued the practice of forcing pregnant staff to quit for as long as it did.

“We can only speculate as to why [the airline] decided to make the change this year,” it said. “It’s possible that because of the pandemic the job market is currently very tight and it makes sense to not terminate employees’ contracts unnecessarily.”

Employees still have to apply for ground work with no guarantee of securing a position, Aware says. The precise grooming standards remain unclear but may also restrict opportunities for returning mothers, it added.

Maternity discrimination is against the law in Singapore, so the question arises how the government-backed airline was able to enforce the policy until 2022 despite years of criticism. It also casts a pall over state efforts to address workplace discrimination, particularly against women.

Research carried out by Aware shows that maternity discrimination is still a widespread issue in Singapore and other employers do find ways to get around existing laws. Aware says its workplace harassment and discrimination advisory reported 71 maternity discrimination cases in 2021, out of a total of 88 discrimination cases reported to them that year.

Many hope that forthcoming anti-discrimination legislation — a first for Singapore — will be more effective in rooting out such practices by closing loopholes.

Many of the cases examined by Aware are related to small and medium-sized enterprises, not major brands such as Singapore Airlines — which is why how the carrier treats its female employees is so important. Singapore Airlines should be the sky-high bar other employers are held to, rather than a floor.

[email protected] / @mjruehl