Women's quest for justice and equality - a short history

Tommy Koh   PUBLISHED 19/2/2019

Singapore women have done well in achieving parity with men but in other parts of the world, the struggle continues

Women's rights are human rights. The struggle by women for justice and equality is one of the longest in the history of human rights. Although much progress has been made, the struggle is not over in some parts of the world. Boys and girls are born equal. Inequality sets in as they grow up. The causes are many, with history, religion and culture all playing a part.

In the ancient world, women were treated as chattel. They could be bought or sold. Women had to marry the men chosen for them. They had no legal personality. They could not own property. They had no freedom of movement. Men's oppression of women is therefore an evil which has ancient roots.

Religion has generally reinforced gender inequality with precepts and doctrines that subordinate women to men. Some Christian denominations bar women from the priesthood or leadership positions. In Islam, women face restrictions on leading public prayers. According to some Buddhist texts, women can attain Buddhahood only by first being reborn as men. In Hindu literature, women are sometimes depicted as being weak, sinful and irresponsible. The two religions which treat men and women equally are Sikhism and Baha'ism.

Confucius taught that a daughter should obey her father, a wife her husband and a widow her son. Confucianism has had a pernicious influence on the status of women in Asia as it continues to influence the behaviour of men towards women in North-east and South-east Asia. The male chauvinist teachings of Confucius may be the reason why societies in these parts of Asia have such low fertility rates.

COLONIAL SINGAPORE

What was the situation in colonial Singapore? The British rulers of Singapore were all men. Reflecting the attitude back home, their attitude towards women was unenlightened. Professor Aline Wong, in her book Women In Modern Singapore, described the situation in colonial Singapore in the following way: "The cultural traditions of the major ethnic communities in Singapore place a greater premium on the male compared with the female. Whether born as a Chinese, an Indian or a Malay, a woman is subjected to sociocultural and religious pressures to conform to the roles of wife and mother and to lead a secluded life." Although several women's leaders such as Shirin Fozdar, Seow Peck Leng and May Wong had petitioned the British Governor and the British Parliament to abolish polygamy, their petition was rejected. Chinese men were free to have as many wives and concubines as they wished. Women occupied an inferior status during British rule. In 1877, the British Government established the Chinese Protectorate. Its objective was to look after the needs of the Chinese community. To its credit, the protectorate did try to tackle the problem of the trafficking of women and girls for prostitution. They also tried to ensure that the sale of young girls to rich families as mui tsai was not a form of slavery.

WOMEN'S CHARTER OF 1961

In its early days, the People's Action Party (PAP) was a revolutionary party. In 1959, it campaigned for the policy of one man, one wife. In 1961, the Singapore Government enacted the Women's Charter. It was nothing less than the Magna Carta for women in Singapore.

What are the most important provisions of the Women's Charter?

• First, it abolished polygamy for all non-Muslim men and required that all future marriages be registered.

• Second, a married woman could continue to use her own name.

•Third, husband and wife were treated as equal partners in a marriage.

• Fourth, women had the right to own, buy and sell property.

• Fifth, the Charter safeguards the rights of women in matters relating to marriage and divorce.

• Sixth, the Charter also protects the right of the wife to matrimonial assets, maintenance and the custody of children.

THE PAP AND WOMEN

In the 1950s and 1960s, the PAP had several women leaders such as Chan Choy Siong. It was a pro-woman party. However, by the 1970s and 1980s, the PAP no longer had any women in its leadership. The party drifted away from its origin and became anti-women. Let me cite three examples to support my point.

Quota for women in medical school

In 1979, the Minister for Health, Dr Toh Chin Chye, announced that women would be restricted to one-third of the intake for medical school. This unreasonable discrimination against women was abolished only in 2003.

Lower admission requirements for male students

In 1983, the National University of Singapore modified its entry requirements for male students. Why? In order to prevent any imbalance in the sex ratio in favour of women. Speaking in justification of this discrimination, the NUS vice-chancellor, Professor Lim Pin, said that a gender imbalance in the university would only aggravate the "problem of having unmarried graduate women".

Home economics not for boys

In 1984, the Ministry of Education stopped all Secondary 1 and Secondary 2 girls from taking technical studies. Henceforth, all girls had to study home economics and the boys had to take technical studies.

THE UNITED NATIONS' POSITIVE INFLUENCE

Some foolish people think the world would be better off without the United Nations. Without the UN, we would not have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and, most importantly, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw). Cedaw was adopted in 1979 and came into force in 1981. Singapore became a party to the Convention in 1995. Article 16 of Cedaw requires all state parties to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family matters.

What are the rights of women protected by Cedaw? First, the right to freely and consensually choose her spouse. Second, to have personal rights to her children even in the event of divorce. Third, the right of a married woman to choose a profession or occupation. Fourth, to have property rights within marriage.

Before leaving the subject of the UN, I would like to acknowledge the important contributions which a Singaporean, Dr Noeleen Heyzer, the former executive director of the UN Development Fund for Women, has made. In 2000, Dr Heyzer succeeded in persuading the UN Security Council to adopt Resolution 1325. The resolution calls on states to safeguard the rights of women and girls in armed conflict.

Judge Navanethem Pillay of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said: "From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as one of the spoils of war. Now it is a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war."

STATUS OF WOMEN IN SINGAPORE

Have Singapore women succeeded in achieving justice and equality with men? I think it would be fair to say that in most important respects, women have achieved equality with men. Our women have achieved parity with men in education at all levels. Women's participation in our workforce is at about 60 per cent but there is still a wage gap between men and women. Women outlive men. Most glass ceilings impeding the rise of women in Singapore have been broken. We have a woman as our President. We have several very capable woman ministers, permanent secretaries, judges of the Supreme Court, CEOs of statutory boards and leading corporations.

The only two areas which need improvement are the number of women in Parliament and the under-representation of women on corporate boards and in senior decision-making positions.

The world has recognised the tremendous progress which women in Singapore have achieved in the past 50 years. In 2016, the UN Human Development Report ranked Singapore No. 11 out of 159 countries on its Gender Inequality Index. In 2017, the US News and World Report published a list of the 23 best countries in the world for a woman to live in. Singapore was ranked No. 22.

CONCLUSION

Women's quest for justice and equality has made tremendous progress in the past few decades.

In Singapore, women have largely achieved parity with men. The Singapore Council of Women's Organisations and the Association of Women for Action and Research should be acknowledged for their pivotal role in fighting for equal rights. Singapore has become one of the world's most women-friendly countries.

However, women in some other parts of the world are not so fortunate. They are still treated as second-class citizens and continue to live under the oppression of men. The struggle is not over.

• Professor Tommy Koh, a veteran diplomat, is chairman of the Centre for International Law and rector of Tembusu College, both at the National University of Singapore.

Holding Half The Seats

Apr 8, 2010 8:00 PM EDT

In virtually all societies, leadership is gendered masculine. Where women do get a chance to lead, they are often seen as ersatz men—Margaret Thatcher as the "Iron Lady" or Golda Meir as "the only man in the cabinet." Many women leaders are forgotten when they are seen as anomalies and not part of a pattern. When I served on a panel at the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, I was introduced as chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, an organization of present and former female presidents and prime ministers. I offered to give $100 to anyone who could name all 34 of our members. One prominent leader, known to be supportive of women's political aspirations, started to write. He could list only 17—and was unable to recall all the women who were in office when he was. Why is that an astute and engaged leader could readily recall only 50 percent of this small group of his peers? Was it a problem of memory—or memorableness?

Studies have shown that by the time children start school, they already have a deeply imbued sense of what it means to be male and female in their society. If these views support traditional gender roles, education will be hard-pressed to supplant them with something more conducive to gender equality. If we want to open up opportunities for women in public life, we have to address the landscape from which people derive their ideas of the way the world works.

Does it matter whether women are in public office? Aside from questions of justice and fair representation, there are important qualitative reasons why women need to be present in our governing bodies. We can argue that there are as many differences within the sexes as between them, but institutions dominated by one sex or the other display distinctive cultural characteristics. In all-male environments, men tend to take greater risks. This can be a good thing or a disaster—as the recent behavior in investment banks has shown. In addition to different agendas, single-gender bodies operate differently. On a recent trip to Skopje, Macedonia, I met the women M.P.s—40 out of a total of 120—who have formed a political "club," which is the only parliamentary group working across party lines. Notwithstanding often powerful arguments over issues, the members of this group from the governing and opposition coalitions refuse to let their disagreements drive them away from dialogue. They have achieved real policy results through a committee on equal opportunity for women and men that has produced laws on child welfare, support to working mothers, and domestic violence.

The critical mass of women in the Macedonian Parliament is a result of party quotas. In many countries, quotas ensure that women play a part in political life. Just as the role of women in World War I paved the way for their enfranchisement in countries like Canada, the U.S., and Britain, the role of women in liberation struggles in Africa has resulted in their greater representation in countries like Rwanda, South Africa, Mozambique, and Uganda—a level guaranteed by quotas. The Nordic countries have long embraced quotas that guarantee a high number of women in parliaments, which in turn has led to their almost equal number of cabinet posts. Even traditional Spain has seen a 50-50 representation in the cabinet. But of all the mechanisms to promote gender parity, quotas are the most controversial. In countries like the U.S. and Canada, they are not only difficult to implement but are often regarded as unfair because they appear to privilege one group over another.

Quotas address the problem of visibility. They ensure that women are there. How do we make our governing bodies look more like the people they govern, and thereby deliver the message that it is every citizen's right to aspire to public office? Most experts will tell you the quotas that work best are voluntary ones—where parties recognize the importance of women's roles, and seek to recruit them as candidates and get them elected.

Last year in Toronto I proposed a measure that could achieve gender parity in my country without "quotas" in the traditional sense. If we elected two people from every electoral district—one man and one woman—we could have instant parity. Each party would nominate two candidates for each district and voters would choose one from the male list and one from the female list. Of course, electoral boundaries would have to be revised to accommodate the consolidation, but Canada is in the process of redistricting and it might be just the time to do something radical.

In 1997 a group of former women heads of state and government formed the Council of Women World Leaders to make visible the fact that women can and do lead their countries. We must find ways to demonstrate the naturalness of women in politics. Quotas have changed the way many cultures see those who govern them. Wouldn't it be great if we couldn't remember the names of all the women leaders simply because there were too many of them?

Japanese women and work

Holding back half the nation

Women’s lowly status in the Japanese workplace has barely improved in decades, and the country suffers as a result.

Mar 29th 2014 | TOKYO | From the print edition of Economist

 KAREN KAWABATA represents the best of Japan’s intellectual capital. She has just graduated from the University of Tokyo, the most prestigious in the country. Wry and poised, with an American mother and Japanese father, she has the languages and cosmopolitan attitude that Japanese companies particularly value nowadays. In April she will join McKinsey, a consultancy that should give her immediate membership of a globe-trotting elite.

Yet Ms Kawabata sees obstacles in her path. She is acutely aware of the difficulties she would face at traditional Japanese companies, should she find herself joining one. Ferociously long working hours, often stretching past midnight, are followed by sessions of “nominication”, a play on the Japanese word for drinking, nomu, and the English word “communication”; these are where young hopefuls forge connections and build reputations. Nowadays women trying to impress the boss are allowed to drink plum wine mixed with plenty of soda instead of beer, says Ms Kawabata. But that is hardly a great improvement.

Above all, she worries that having a family will be nigh on impossible to combine with a demanding career. When she met her boyfriend’s father for the first time this year, she reassured him about her intentions at McKinsey. “I told him that I would rethink my career in a few years’ time,” she says.

That one of the brightest of Japan’s graduates needs to say such things should worry Shinzo Abe, the prime minister. Japan educates its women to a higher level than nearly anywhere else in the world: its girls come near the top in education league-tables compiled by the OECD. But when they leave university their potential is often squandered, as far as the economy is concerned. Female participation in the labour force is 63%, far lower than in other rich countries. When women have their first child, 70% of them stop working for a decade or more, compared with just 30% in America. Quite a lot of those 70% are gone for good.

Beyond the Festival of the Dolls

Mr Abe says he wants to change that. In April 2013 he announced that allowing women to “shine” in the economy was the most important part of his “Abenomics” growth strategy. Raising female labour participation to the level of men’s could add 8m people to Japan’s shrinking workforce, potentially increasing GDP by as much as 15%, according to Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. More women working for more pay would also increase demand. Hence speeches from Mr Abe attaching new-found importance to matters such as the opening hours of kindergartens and the challenges of breast-feeding outside the home.

For the prime minister, who belongs to the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), this is quite a turnaround. In 2005, when a previous government was taking steps towards greater equality, Mr Abe and his fellow conservatives warned of the damage to family values and to Japanese culture that could result if men and women were treated equally. They worried that rituals such as the hina matsuri, or Festival of Dolls, an annual celebration of young girls and the state of matrimony, could be endangered. Their concern was not just based on tradition; keeping women out of the workforce, conservatives thought, made economic sense too. If the country’s “baby-making machines”, as a former LDP health minister put it, stayed at home then they would produce more babies, and thus more workers.

This insight proved to be flawed. As the LDP encouraged women to stay at home, the fertility rate, already low, plunged further, bottoming out at 1.26 children per woman in 2005 before edging up to 1.41 in 2012. The consequent dearth of young people means that Japan’s working-age population is expected to fall by 40% by 2050, exerting a powerful drag on the economy. As a solution to this, the direct measure of getting more women out into the workforce would have great advantages over the indirect tactic of encouraging them to stay at home in the unfounded hope that they will breed instead.

Indeed, it may even turn out that working and having children go hand in hand. In other rich countries, higher birth rates nearly always accompany higher female employment, and in Japan itself the birth rate is higher in the countryside, where more women work, than in the big cities, where fewer do. The changes that might encourage more urban women into work—such as better child-care provision, and a less demanding corporate culture, which would mean shorter working hours for men and women alike—might encourage them and their husbands to have more children, too.

The missing salarywoman

Mr Abe’s interest in all this is new; the problem is not. Yoko Kamikawa, an LDP politician, recently served on the party’s new committee seeking to improve the lot of women. In the 2000s, during Mr Abe’s first term as prime minister, she was his minister of gender equality. She is startled, she says, by the lack of progress since then.

In most countries women’s participation in the labour force dips around the years when they marry and bear children; after that it recovers. But this M-shaped curve is much more pronounced in Japan than in most other rich countries (see chart 1). Japan’s curve has levelled out somewhat in recent years: in 2004 the rate of full- and part-time employment for 30- to 34-year-old women was 61%, a figure which by 2012 had risen to 69%. Yet young, married mothers are still largely absent from the workforce, and many women returning to work go into part-time or temporary jobs with low pay and little security.

Those who stay in work often do so in jobs that waste their abilities. Few women hold professional, technical or managerial roles. In 2012 they made up 77% of Japan’s part-time and temporary workforce. Many of these workers are well-off married women seeking a little extra income. But others are poor and marginalised. The precarious existence of such workers was described in “Out”, a bestselling 1997 crime novel by Natsuo Kirino which had a resonance, and earned acclaim, beyond the borders of the genre. The heroine, who spends her nights toiling in a soulless packed-lunch factory, helps conceal the murder of a colleague’s no-good husband. Ms Kirino’s subsequent bestsellers have also focused on the division of gender roles, describing men slaving away in the corporate world, disconnected from women in the home.

At the very top of corporate Japan, the “bamboo ceiling”—so-called by women for being thick, hard and not even transparent—is starting to let in some chinks of light, but they are few and far between. In 2011, 4.5% of company division heads were female, up from 1.2% in 1989. But relative to other countries the numbers are still dismal. Of the most senior, executive-committee-level managers in Japan, 1% were women in 2011, according to a regional study by McKinsey. The equivalent figure for China was 9%, for Singapore 15%.

Corporate culture is by far the biggest obstacle for Japanese women. The practice of hiring graduates fresh out of university and employing them for their entire working lives makes it difficult for employees to take career breaks and seek new positions elsewhere afterwards. Promotion tends to be based on tenure and overtime, rather than on productivity and performance. And straightforward discrimination remains rampant. In a study that compared the reasons why Japanese and American college graduates leave their jobs, American women cited child care and looking after elderly relations as the main factors. Japanese women blamed dissatisfaction with their jobs and a feeling of being put into “dead-end” roles. The fact that their husbands, who spend more time at work than their counterparts in other developed countries, spend less time on child care or household chores, adds to the perceived need to stay at home (see chart 2).

When Japanese firms take their pick of university graduates they choose men and women, but they still prefer men for management, sticking most of the women on the “clerical” track. Foreign companies have been able to take advantage of this prejudice by hiring and promoting able female graduates, says Georges Desvaux, the head of McKinsey’s Tokyo office, who also leads the firm’s global research on the role of women in companies. Overseas executives inside large Japanese companies tell tales of über-secretaries with the talent to run the whole business.

Keidanren, Japan’s most powerful business lobby, has been markedly uninterested in doing much about this. Though government pressure recently got the lobby to start internal discussions on promoting women, corporate leaders regard Mr Abe’s new enthusiasm for improving the lot of women in the same way as they look on reforms to corporate governance: as costly distractions from the task of lifting Japan Inc’s profits. Keidanren refuses to ask its members even to state the number of women on their boards, in fear of being asked to increase it, or having quotas imposed. Bureaucrats seeking to find the number scan documents for the suffix “ko”, usually found on female names.

Male dominance extends beyond the corporate world: in politics, too, women are grossly under-represented. In the lower house of the Diet, women hold only 8% of seats, with 19% in the upper house. In a global survey of women in parliaments, Japan ranked 123rd out of 189 countries. The older generation of men is particularly traditionalist, and still wields the most clout.

Pampered wife, wise choice

Yet women are not simply being held back by the patriarchy. When the choice is between leisurely dependency in the home—known as sanshoku hirune tsuki (“three meals and a nap”)—and the sorry life of a salaryman there is something to be said for putting your feet up. In wealthy places like Tokyo many women simply do not wish to work, says Takeshi Niinami, chief executive of Lawson, a chain of convenience stores.

Mariko Bando, author of “The Dignity of a Woman”, a bestselling guide for women on how to succeed in the workplace, points out that many Japanese women do not feel they need a high-status job to enjoy high status. A well-educated woman working part-time in a supermarket will not see that job as defining her identity if she is the wife of, say, a high-ranking Mitsubishi Corporation executive.

Remarkably, women seem to have become more conservative about work in the past few years. In 1979, 70% of women agreed with the statement that “The husband should be the breadwinner and the wife should take care of the home”. By 2004 that had fallen to 41%. But in 2012, perhaps because of the recession in 2007-09, just over half said they preferred to stay at home. A survey last year showed that a third of very young women want to become full-time housewives. Potential husbands, meanwhile, were less traditionalist: only one in five young men said he wanted his future wife to stay in the home.

Feminism has remained a timid force in Japan. The long economic boom that began in the 1950s was a national priority which left little room for questioning traditional roles in the home or workplace, says Chizuko Ueno, Japan’s best-known feminist. And women are not without power behind the scenes. Housewives control the family finances, and in the workplace so-called “office ladies” wield a lot of influence over the lives of salarymen, quietly hindering the careers of those they dislike.

There are, however, some indications that the role of women could change. For one thing, the boom that overrode all other interests is long gone. Stagnating wages mean the three-meals-and-a-nap way of life is less widely available, with households increasingly in need of two incomes. And the divorce rate is rising. More Japanese women are opting out of marriages to overworked and largely absent salarymen, and so thus increasingly need to fend for themselves. Although a portion of young women want old-fashioned gender roles, the rest, including the “parasite singles” who prefer living with their parents to marriage, want change.

Herbivore men, carnivore women

Some of the most motivated graduates nowadays are female, and a growing number of companies are waking up to the possibility of putting them to better use than in the past. According to Sakie Fukushima, a director of another business lobby, Keizai Doyukai, human-resources executives say in private that they would hire young women ahead of men most of the time. Yet they are afraid that they will lose them when they have children. Japan’s female 20-somethings now tend to be far more internationally minded than their male equivalents, says Lawson’s Mr Niinami. They outperformsoshoku danshi, or “herbivore” men, so-called for taking low-responsibility jobs and preferring shopping to sex. These same young men have little desire to follow the breadwinner/housewife model adopted by their parents. Indeed, Japanese media have recently, with some surprise, begun to note a trend towards young fathers taking on more child care.

In some corners of corporate Japan, firms are changing the old working practices. At DeNA, an internet-services company, employees have noticed that their colleagues in California never stay late at the office, instead continuing their work at home. They are now starting to follow the American example, says the company’s founder, Tomoko Namba. A few firms are trying to increase productivity while shortening hours. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, a leading blue-chip, is discouraging workers from staying in the office after seven o’clock.

By 2020 Mr Abe wants women to occupy 30% of all “leadership” positions—which would include members of parliament, heads of local government and corporate executives. His most practical step has been to try to shorten waiting lists for child care by allowing more private companies into a previously state-dominated sector. Here he has seized upon the work of Fumiko Hayashi, the mayor of Yokohama, who after being elected in 2009 managed to reduce the city’s child-care waiting list, then the longest in the country, to zero in just over three years. A former senior saleswoman at Honda, BMW and Nissan, she brought private firms into the sector. Mr Abe wants to expand her “Yokohama method” across the country.

Yet many Japanese women, who are particularly protective of their children, distrust day care (one reason women in the countryside have more children is that they are more likely to have parents nearby to lend a hand). What is required, more people now argue, is an army of foreign nannies. In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Abe suggested Japan’s immigration rules could be eased so that foreign workers could help care for children and elderly relatives, another duty that falls most heavily on women. There have been unconfirmed media reports that the government is considering allowing in as many as 200,000 foreigners a year to work in areas such as construction, child care and nursing.

As with much of the country’s ambitious programme of structural reform, however, such a loosening will face high political hurdles. Immigration is unpopular with the Japanese public; insiders note that Mr Abe may say such things in Switzerland, but has not given public voice to them in Japan.

Until overseas talk is followed by domestic action, many will think Mr Abe lacks the will to push for changes that would greatly improve the life of working women. His actions so far have not impressed. A request that firms allow mothers to take three years of maternity leave—compared with the 18 months they can take now—met with derision from all sides. Companies said it would cripple them; feminist critics said that it was part of the old agenda to keep women in the home. The target of 30% women in leadership roles by 2020 was first proposed in 2003 by then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. “The target is an old one, and it was not implemented,” says Yuriko Koike, head of public relations for the LDP and a former defence minister. The deadline arrives in only six years; there is little chance it will be met. The idea of reducing waiting lists for child care, too, dates back to Mr Koizumi’s time in office.

Some of Mr Abe’s allies frequently remind voters of the prime minister’s former traditional views on the family. In January Michiko Hasegawa, whom Mr Abe had approved as a board member at NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, published a column saying that women’s most important task was to bring up their children, and that this should take priority over working outside the home. “The message on women is somewhat mixed,” concludes Ms Koike.

If the government really wants to increase female employment, argues Kathy Matsui of Goldman Sachs, it could do so by axing tax rules that keep women’s earnings low. The “head of household”, normally a man, is allowed to claim a tax deduction of ¥380,000 ($3,700) as long as his spouse’s income does not exceed ¥1.03m. The pension system, too, encourages limited earnings. As long as a wife’s annual wages remain under ¥1.3m she can claim the national pension without paying any premiums. Tackling such privileges, however, could cost the LDP the votes of millions of housewives and their husbands.

At a private dinner in Davos Mr Abe listened to a small group of senior women, including a former head of state, discuss what Japan should do differently. An awkward moment came when one of the guests, Miki Tsusaka, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group, told him she had dreaded returning to Japan after a successful career spent mostly in New York. Yet increasingly, behind their soft tones and feminine demeanour, many Japanese women are getting ready to break out of their dolls’ house. If the country’s policymakers can find the right ways to help them, those women could boost the economy and reform corporate culture. Both they and their sararimen stand greatly to benefit.

From the print edition: Briefing

Only 8.3% women on listed firm boards

57% of boards are all male, says latest poll of 300 firms in S'pore

By Chia Yan Min

 WOMEN are still woefully under-represented on the boards of Singapore listed companies, according to findings by a task force set up to address the issue.

As of April last year, only 8.3 per cent of listed company directorships were held by women, a survey by the recently formed Diversity Task Force found.

This was far fewer than in some other advanced economies such as Australia at 17.3 per cent, and Britain at 19 per cent.

It was also fewer than in Asian economies such as Malaysia at 8.7 per cent, China at 9 per cent and Hong Kong at 9.4 per cent.

Other studies in recent years had also found female representation rates in Singapore languishing at around the current level.

The latest survey, which polled 300 Singapore listed companies, also found that 57 per cent of boards here were all male.

The Diversity Task Force was set up in 2012 in response to concerns about female under-representation in top corporate positions. It was initiated by Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob when she was minister of state for the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

The task force, comprising private sector and women's groups members, is expected to release a report and recommendations for businesses and the Government by the end of next month.

Mrs Mildred Tan, chairman of the task force, said companies can benefit from having a more diverse board. "With the manpower shortage and an ageing population, tapping the under-utilised pool of talented women in Singapore could give companies a competitive edge," said Mrs Tan, who is also managing director of Ernst & Young Advisory.

Making board gender diversity a business imperative will also help to build shareholder confidence, she added.

Without regulatory intervention, the task force estimates that the percentage of women directors will grow to a mere 12 per cent in 2020 and 17 per cent in 2030, it said yesterday.

The survey findings showed companies are not yet convinced of the benefits of a diverse board, and that few have taken measures to tip the gender imbalance.

Only a third of companies polled agreed that gender diversity at board level is important, and a mere 4 per cent said shortlisted candidates for the board have to include at least one woman.

Factors contributing to the lack of board gender diversity include a perceived lack of qualified female candidates, with 43 per cent of firms polled citing that as a stumbling block to appointing more female board members.

Firms also rely excessively on personal networks to recruit directors - 89 per cent of companies said they have used this method, with 42 per cent recruiting only from their personal networks.

"The reality is that boards recruit based on their network of acquaintances, and many board members tend to move in circles that don't include professional women," said Mr Adrian Chan, vice-chairman of the Singapore Institute of Directors.

Women also tend to be more reluctant than men to take up board positions, the task force said.

"Women are less likely to put themselves forward or are more likely to feel that they may not be adequately qualified for a director or senior management role. Men are seen to be more assertive in putting themselves forward, even if they do not meet all the requirements of a role," it said.

The majority - 73 per cent - of companies surveyed said there should not be a quota imposed on the number of female board members, as directors should be hired based on merit.

Respondents preferred putting in place measures to broaden the search and nomination process for potential board candidates, and implementing initiatives to identify potential directors.

Companies should cast the net wider and hire the best person for the job regardless of gender, said Mr Chan.

"There are definitely enough women candidates out there - it is a matter of getting boards to be open-minded enough to consider them," he said.

Gender Equality in Singapore's society

Close that workplace gender gap

BY Dr Theresa W. Devasahayam is Fellow and Researcher-in-charge of Gender Studies at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

The world once again finds itself celebrating International Women’s Day this Friday, March 8. There are many reasons to celebrate women’s and girls’ achievements. One obvious achievement we can boast about is that the gender gap in education has reversed in many parts of the world, as now girls more than boys are more likely to enter college and graduate.

While this is clearly progress for women – since receiving an education signals empowerment as theoretically it puts women on an equal playing field with men in enabling them to seek out wage work – gender equality in education does not automatically translate into gender equality in the workplace.

In fact, women still face persistent obstacles in the workplace because this domain remains largely male-dominated.

Several reasons point to why the gender gap in the workplace should be closed. The most obvious rationale is that closing the gap in employment actually spurs GDP growth rates as well as improves economic competitiveness and corporate performance.

Moreover, women bring a different approach to social interactions in the workplace, says President of Harvard University Drew Gilpin Faust.

PERSISTENT WAGE GAP

Making the workplace inclusive for women may be achieved in several ways. Ensuring equal pay for equal work across the sexes is one attempt at engendering gender equality.

In the United States, for example, in spite of the wage gap closing from 62 per cent from 1979 to 82 per cent in 2011 for men and women (according to data from the US Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics published in October 2012), a gap still persists with older female workers not being compensated as well as their younger counterparts.

In Southeast Asia also, men continue to earn more than women. According to the World Economic Forum, several countries in the region surpassed the average score of 0.64 documented for 135 countries in 2012 (with a score of 1 denoting gender equality). The Philippines (0.79), Thailand (0.74), Malaysia (0.82) and Singapore (0.81) are examples. Others, however, such as Indonesia and Vietnam fared relatively poorly in comparison with their neighbours, scoring 0.67 and 0.68 respectively

Removing every shade of discrimination against female employees in the area of promotion is also equally important. The numbers of women in decision-making positions in corporations and businesses continue to lag behind men because of the glass ceiling.

By removing the glass ceiling, which would have the effect of not only being inclusive of women, diversity is also ensured and, in turn, we may expect that the presence of women translates into better governance.

LET HER KNOW MOTHERHOOD MATTERS

Also important is that creating an inclusive workplace for women workers means there should be measures to ensure that women are not penalised if they decide not to work for a short period, in order to have or to look after their children.

This policy would have a twofold effect. Firstly, it would signal to women that their skills in the workplace are always in demand and it is acceptable for them to be mothers and workers at the same time.

Secondly, in the face of falling fertility rates across the world, a woman who decides to start a family should be fully aware that her choice of leaving the workforce for a short spell would not be held against her. She should be made to feel that her motherhood role is important not only to herself and her immediate family, but also to wider society.

Making the workplace more inclusive to women would include the provision of affordable childcare, especially in the case of working mothers, since female employees are more likely than their male counterparts to be saddled with the task of balancing family demands and workplace commitments.

Having access to affordable childcare means that the tensions of balancing home demands and workplace commitments would be significantly minimised, if these women are able to ingeniously labour towards integrating these two worlds.

If childcare is beyond the reach of the average household, this would lead to a situation where it is most likely women will choose not to enter the labour force, since they do not see gains in going out to work. For many women, it is they who would opt instead to stay at home since generally it is expected that they shoulder the burden of caring.

RETREAT FROM THE WORKPLACE

Mothers retreating from the workplace is a universal and perennial phenomenon to which Singapore is no exception.

According to a report on labour force engagement in Singapore published in 2011, 47.3 per cent of women as compared with 1.8 per cent of men singled out “families responsibilities” (which includes housework, childcare and care-giving to families/relatives) to be the reason for their economic inactivity. In fact among the women, 25.5 per cent reported not working because of childcare compared with 1.5 per cent of men.

Since motherhood is the main reason for women to retreat from the workplace, this is more than enough reason to address this concern and make it easier for women to return to work. In the world, the Nordic countries have gained considerable success in wooing large numbers of women back to the workforce. A combination of factors has led to this scenario, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2012.

These factors include policies enabling women to combine work and family through better work-life balance and ensuring a shared participation in childcare which involves greater involvement on the part of the State; and the prevalence of a gender ideology which encourages gender egalitarianism in the home front in terms of a more equitable distribution of labour.

At a time of slow and uncertain economic growth, there is enough justification for investing in women such that their participation in the labour force can be optimised. For countries with more robust economic forecasts, accelerating women’s participation in the labour force indicates a commitment on the part of employers as well as governments to ensure that the workplace continues to be inclusive.

As the Chinese proverb goes, women hold up half the sky; so, ensuring that women are on an equal footing with men in the workplace makes logical sense. But there should be no reason for women to feel pressured to fit in and to behave like men, should they decide to participate in the workforce. Rather as Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says: “We have to dare the difference and speak about it”.

MORE SUPPORT FOR WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

Grace Fu
Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Information Communications and the Arts, and the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources; Member of Parliament for Yuhua; Chairman of the PAP Women’s Wing executive committee

Surveys have shown that gender ratio equality in the workplace is maintained only at the entry level. As we move up the corporate hierarchy, the number of women is significantly fewer than men. Men are progressing faster and further than women. We are under-represented (3 to 8) in the senior leadership positions. Similarly, women only made up 7% of boardroom positions in listed companies in Singapore.

Women are expected to undertake the primary role in caring for the husband, children, and the parents. While we are fortunate to have the support of domestic helpers, women are often expected to make the career adjustments to suit the family circumstances. Many chose to take a slower pace in their career or drop out of the workforce completely.

The younger generation are postponing marriage and parenthood. With good education, women are excelling in the workplace and enjoying financial independence and satisfaction from their jobs. They are delaying the drudgery of a marriage if it means having to sacrifice many of their lifestyle choices.

Women today do not wish to see employers writing them off once a baby is on the way; neither do they wish to rely solely on the promise that their spouses will provide for them for the rest of their lives. They want a workplace where employers, recognizing the multiple roles they play, manage their career with flexibility over their life phases.

A female employee choosing to work part-time when she is caring for a young child should not be excluded from training opportunities nor future progression opportunities.

35 per cent of employers offer some form of work-life arrangement. Women, especially those with children, want to see more options such as more part-time work opportunities, flexible work hours and tele-commuting arrangements.

For those wishing to re-enter the workforce when their children are older, the government can provide training to ease their transition back into the workplace.

Companies can also offer transition arrangements where women re-entering the workforce do part-time work or take up internships, before moving into full-time positions.

Singaporeans realising their Fullest Potential

Foo Mee Har
Member of Parliament for West Coast; assistant secretary of the PAP Women’s Wing executive committee

In my meetings with business leaders, I often hear them lament that despite the availability of growth opportunities in Singapore, the key constraint to realising these opportunities is neither capital nor ideas, but the availability of talent.  This dearth of talent has led companies to curtail their expansion plans, with some even contemplating taking their business offshore.

In the past, foreign workers and professionals have augmented our local talent pool.  However, there is a limit to how many foreigners our society and infrastructure can accommodate.  The government has given the assurance that the share for foreign talent will be limited to one third of the workforce.

As we approach this limit, it is more important than ever to find ways to tap on the talents of every Singaporean.  Furthermore, Singapore has one of the fastest aging populations and one of the lowest birth rates in the world.  This highlights how critical it is for us to nurture every citizen and bring out the best in our people.

Women

First, I would like to begin with a subject that is close to my heart, and that is how we can better realise the full potential of women in Singapore. Research has shown a clear link between gender equality and a country’s economic strength.  Indeed, Nordic countries that lead the world in many indicators of gender equality rank amongst the strongest global competitors with the highest standards of living.

The opportunity with women in Singapore was recognised early on. Back in 1975,our former Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said and I quote:“Societies which do not educate and use half their potential because they are women, are those which will be the worse off. Those that do, and face up to problems of new social and family relationships to help working wives to bring up the next generation, are those most likely to provide better lives for their people. We cannot not educate and use the energy and ability of our women.”Unquote.

Singaporean women today have more opportunities than in the past. We have seen more and more women leading in their respective fields. However, we still have 58,000 women with university degrees not working, 3 times more than that of men.  And despite recent gains, women’s labour force participation remains low at only 57% as compared to that of men at 77%.  Amongst women who work, few make it to leadership positions.  Women occupy only 27% of ‘executive’ level positions, and only 6% of board positions in Singapore listed companies.  Singapore only ranked 56th amongst 134 countries in Global Gender Gap Index by World Economic Forum.

Sir, deploying more women in the workforce contributes far beyond having more pairs of hands, or achieving egalitarian ideals.  Women bring unique talents, skill sets, life experiences and perspectives to the workplace.  There is a body of research which suggests that companies with a strong women representation at board and top management roles are also the companies that perform best.

The challenge of juggling family and work demands is the key reason for low women representation in our workforce, as women continue to be the primary caregiver. Close to 90% of women stop work due to family responsibilities.  Over the years, I have counselled many female colleagues who struggle with the choice of staying at home or continue working, usually after having children.  They are typically at the prime of their career potential.  They feel a strong sense of guilt about not having enough family time, yet they also feel a great sense of loss in giving up the career they have built and the financial security that comes with it.  Juggling work and family can be a delicate balance.   I remember my days as a young mother, rushing home to see my sons during lunch break, was the best reward of a working day, even when this usually meant a precious 15 minutes at home, before rushing back for the next meeting.   Being away on business trips was often a miserable experience.

In modern Singapore, women who choose to work, should be supported so that they can work and take care of their families at the same time.  But in order for this to happen, they need ready access to child and elder care services, they need their husbands as joint partners in raising their families, and they also need employers and government to adopt family friendly policies.  We still have some way to go in providing these.

For example, despite the many discussions in this house around flexi work arrangements, women here continue to struggle with the painful choice between full time work or no work, as flexi and part time work arrangements, including home based work, are not readily available.  61% of women who are not working, have indicated they would work, if flexi and part time arrangements were made available.  Being one of the most highly connected and technologically advanced countries in the world, Singapore has all the natural levers to support flexi work.  Not leveraging this to enable women to stay in the workforce is truly a missed opportunity.

In addition, more can be done to help women to go back to work, especially those in the lower income group, as this will mean helping their families with extra income to lift living standards.

NTUC’s Back to Work programme, has helped 8,000 women return to the workforce, but there are still more than 235,000 economically inactive women between the prime ages of 25-54 that could be re-inducted. I  have met a number of female residents who are frustrated at not being able to even land a job interview despite pursuing numerous training programs.  The reason is simply that employers are not confident about their ability to adapt to the work environment and the pace of work, especially with older women who have stopped work for some time.  So in many cases, the employer’s concerns have less to do with the applicant’s relevant skills, and more about her fitting into the working environment.

Sir, taking inspiration from the successful Job Credit Scheme, can we not consider a special grant to encourage employers to offer re-induction to women returning to the workforce? Under this scheme, which I will call the Re-entry Scheme for the purposes of this discussion, companies can obtain grants from the government for a limited period of time, perhaps 3 to 6 months for hiring female returnees to the workplace. This is to ease the re-induction of women into the workplace, by immersing themselves in the operating rhythm and orientating themselves to the rigour of a new job.  The Re-entry Scheme will help offset the employer’s cost for on-the-job training as well as any redesign of work arrangements necessary.  Yes, this will be an investment by the government, but this is an investment that is completely targeted to developing the vocational skills of the worker for the task she is already employed to do, rather than training given in the hope that she will find a job.  I would further recommend that this scheme be extended to older workers for the same purposes.

Sir, the experience of other countries and our own suggests that meaningful changes will not occur naturally.  Instead, they are the result of determined and sustained government interventions, regulations and provisions.  We have only seen a mere increase of 5 percentage points in women labour force participation in 20 years.  In the meantime, our fertility rate has slid to a historic low of 1.16.  This contrasts starkly with countries such as Norway, where gender equality and female friendly employment policies make it easier for women to raise families whilst enjoying successful careers and financial security.  Norway’s women labour participation is at a high of 80%, whilst the fertility rate a respectable 1.96.  Our lack of progress in this field is all the more conspicuous when stacked up against our achievements and progress in many other areas such as the economy, education, environment and heath.

What does it take to keep this issue at the top of  the political and social agenda, to drive it to resolute and urgent action?  Today, the issues highlighted are spread across government agencies co-ordinated by an ‘office’ within MCYS, which itself oversees a wide portfolio of concerns from social welfare, youth, sports, community bonding to aging.  Can women and family not be represented by a dedicated Ministry, as in other countries such as Sweden, New Zealand and Malaysia.  There should be enhanced levels of resources, a strong mandate and authority to prescribe and enforce, rather than to be left to the best efforts of the occasional campaign or promotion by different agencies. The integration of work and family is a national concern, and deserves to be addressed with the right policies, and a comprehensive strategy. Society should be educated and stakeholders should be given clear targets to aspire to.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is time for us to give this area the impetus it deserves.  Our success in doing so will mean higher household incomes, more fulfilling lives, and happier families.  And very likely, it will also mean more babies.  And we will have provided employers in Singapore an enlarged pool of talent who bring unique skills.  Sir, this is a win-win-win scenario for the country.

On gender equality - Students give their views on gender equality in Singapore's society. Wed, Apr 15, 2009 The Straits Times

Meritocracy should come first

WHILE gender equality is an important aspect of a modern, developed society, it cannot and should not be at the expense of meritocracy.

Which is why the Government should be commended on how it has slowly but surely worked women into and up the rungs, rather than indulge in popular appeal and appoint women to positions of power just to achieve a semblance of equality.

There is a very practical benefit to that.

People know that the women who eventually make it to the top have done so on their own merit, and deserve an even greater amount of respect.

This is especially so in traditionally male-dominated fields such as politics, where women are more susceptible to being marginalised or dismissed.

So while Singapore has had to wait 44 years to finally see a full-fledged woman minister in Government, be glad that she is someone to be proud of.

He Zongying, 24, is a final-year business management student at Singapore Management University.

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No sign yet of full equality

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton noted on International Women's Day on March 8 that 'no nation in the world has yet achieved full equality for women'.

I agree.

While Singapore women have equal access to education and health care, they face unjust treatment in the workplace.

There are still instances where companies lay off pregnant employees. And, for women in small and medium-sized enterprises especially, they are pressured into cutting short their maternity leave because there is no one to stand in for them at work.

Some even had to take no-pay maternity leave.

Advocacy group Aware receives three to five calls each month from pregnant mothers who lose their jobs or are not given maternity benefits.

The key to correcting gender inequality is thus to mould the psyche of errant bosses though carrots (training) and sticks (punishments).

Otherwise, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua's achievement is just a sound-bite statistic.

Berton Lim, 21, is a first-year business administration student at the National University of Singapore.

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Freedom to choose one's role

WE SHOULD not read too much into the appointment of Mrs Lim Hwee Hua as Singapore's first woman minister, or think that there was no equal opportunity for women at all before this.

After all, men and women are each privileged in different ways.

'Equality' is not the same as 'equity': the roles that the two genders play in society need not be the exact same ones in order for gender equity to exist.

By all means open up opportunities and offices to both genders, but if women do not wish to participate in politics but would rather be homemakers, why not let them?

Many of my female friends, who are capable and intelligent individuals, have absolutely no interest in running the country.

Not that they couldn't if they were to try, but they simply do not want to.

That does not make their future contributions less meaningful or life less fair to them.

If that means a society with fewer women in politics, that is not necessarily a loss.

Alexander Woon, 19, is a national serviceman.

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Women's issues not only focus

AT THE risk of sounding like a wet blanket, I really don't see what the big deal is - a minister is female, so what?

Perhaps it is just my gender-blindness acting up, but I think the hullabaloo about the first woman minister seems quite unnecessary.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua's new appointment comes with an assortment of responsibilities, and I'm not sure it is fair that she might now be seen as the champion of Singaporean women's issues.

For instance, women may look to her to champion decades-long issues such as fair remuneration and treatment of women in the workplace, as well as better motherhood benefits, in the process overlooking her other strengths.

These issues may not even be among the obligations that come with her new portfolio.

Playing up her role as Singapore's first and only woman minister will only put her under unfair scrutiny, as hefty expectations are placed upon her.

Instead, we should be objective and allow Mrs Lim to ease into her new role, and decide for herself how to use her strengths to best represent the people.

Liana Tang, 24, graduated with honours in biology from NUS.

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A source of inspiration

IT IS high time that Singapore has a woman minister. I believe now it's time for women to take centre stage and take on greater, more prominent roles in society.

Women have already broken the glass ceiling in multinational companies and government bodies. Now they seem to have done so in politics, too. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua inspires me, as a woman, to stump up the guts and plump for a career in politics.

I had aimed to be a doctor, but now, why not aim higher and bring change to Singapore through politics? My female friends and I agree that as long as we have the knowledge, talent and experience, we would be given equal opportunities in any field.

Benazir Parvin, 20, is a Pre-University 2 arts student at Millennia Institute.

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Don't just look at politics

THE starkly imbalanced gender ratio in local politics is not a good indicator of whether or not there is gender equality in Singapore.

During my junior college days, I remember seeing almost the same number of female student leaders in office as their male counterparts, if not more. Yet this does not translate to more female politicians.

It seems that my peers of the fairer sex are far more apathetic towards politics or daunted by its pressures. They perceive being a politician as having to work inordinately long hours and being in constant public scrutiny. Our political history reaffirms this. Politics has largely remained the domain of males. We should look to other professions if we want to find out if women have indeed made it.

Nicholas Lim, 20, has a place at Nanyang Technological University's Nanyang Business School.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.