Compared to other nations in Asia, Singapore has some unique features. The two most relevant are: the inclination of Singaporeans to respond positively to policy directives that are popularly perceived as benefiting the community as a whole; and the government's determination to speed up social and economic development, and the consequent array of policies and policy changes that have taken place during the past two decades (Quah, 1983a).

A discussion involving social values, wives and their timing of the first baby, has been topical in Singapore since the end of the colonial era. But the reasons for the importance given to this issue have changed considerably during the past few years. Before 1984, the government was concerned with controlling population growth. At the time when field-work for this study was being carried out (between November 1981 and April 1982), the main thrust of the family planning policy was to control population growth by persuading the population “to stop at two”, to have later marriages, to delay having the first child and to space out the two children (SFPPB, 1979: 18; Pakshong, 1979: 21-22) although a fertility decline was already evident (Chang, 1970). Singapore's family planning policy, as implemented by the former Singapore Family Planning and Population Board (SFPPB), influenced family behaviour and was comprehensive and very successful (UNFPA, 1975; Wan, 1976; Quah, 1981; Quan, 1983a; Mirror, 1986: 2-3).

After 1984, the goals were reversed: government leaders presented the low marriage and reproduction rates of female university graduates as a social problem for Singapore in what was labelled by the press as “The Great Marnage Debate”. Marriage and parenthood have, since then, been actively encouraged among those groups in the population who were most responsive to the original goals, namely, the better educated. Today, the low reproduction rates of Singapore women, particularly among the Chinese, continue to be at the forefront of the nation's worries (Straits Times, 1987).