I don't often think of Asian countries as being as overtly patriarchal as, for example, the Middle East or Latin America, but gender discrimination certainly still exists out here. I just found out about two existing policies in Singapore that illustrate this point. First, health coverage in Singapore does not extend to the dependants of female civil servants, only of male civil servants (comes from the idea that the male should be the main provider for the household). Second, the medical school here has a quota system where only 1/3 of the class can be female. Apparently, this discriminatory practice is accepted because of the heavy government subsidies expended on medical education and the "belief that female doctors are more likely to quit active medical practices when they get married and become mothers, thus wasting national resources." To me, this is an illustration of why Singapore is still hovering on the edges of the developed world, but hasn't made full entrance into it. There needs to be some basic recognition of equality between the genders, and at the very least an attempt to purge discrimination from government programs.