Equalizing Gender Relations: A Case of Double-Talk

In recent years, an issue that has received plenty of national publicity in Singapore is the growing trend for well-educated women to remain single. The oft-cited reason for the trend is male dispreference for marrying women of an equal or higher educational standing than themselves. Arising from this situation, a series of `educational' ads was launched by the government. In this study, two such ads are closely analysed within a critical discourse analysis approach which draws upon M.A.K. Halliday's functional grammar. I argue that although one of the ads contains potential ingredients for correcting male chauvinism and promoting true gender equality, the ads taken as a set are really concerned with maintaining the social status quo between the sexes.