Speech By Mr Tan Chuan-Jin On The Motion On Aspirations Of

Singapore Women
A More Equal Society
Madam Speaker, let me tell the story of 69 year old Madam Er Teck Gin who had been described as a woman
born at the right time1. When Madam Er reached school-going age, Lee Kuan Yew emerged as the leader of the
fledgling nation, then still seeking its independence from the British. He called on families to send their children
- both boys and girls - to school, to forge the foundation of an educated and effective workforce. So, unlike her
older sister, Madam Er and her younger sisters went to school with their brothers. It changed the course of their
lives. In fact, she is a fine example of lifelong learning because she kept attending classes to improve herself. She
got better and better jobs over the years. She was a cold chef preparing non-cooked food in Raffles Hotel and
later was an executive chef with Singapore Food Industries. Madam Er shared, "I was always financially
independent. With my extra money, I could give my four children a comfortable life.” Was life easy? I’m sure it
was not. But Madam Er worked hard with the opportunities afforded to her.

Madam Speaker, at the heart of all we have done and have been discussing in this session, it is really about
building a fairer and more equal society. Men and women may have different perspectives, insights and instincts,
but there is one clear constant. Whatever the differences, we are equal.

But Madam, the fact that we have this motion in the first place says something. This equality is still work in
progress, but thankfully, a work that remains very much alive, and that builds on the achievements of our
pioneers. This is a unique opportunity for us to also present an overview of how the Singapore Government
values women in our society.

My colleagues at MOM, MOE and MOH have also shared in greater details the efforts that have been undertaken
by the respective Ministries.

We believe in helping every woman fulfil her potential and aspirations. To do so, we must ensure that the playing
field is even and opportunities are fair between men and women. At the same time, we must also ensure that
women have the right to choose, and we should respect those choices.

How do we translate this vision into reality? Well, we must first believe in the worth and potential of our people
– both women and men. Let us start at the beginning, more than 50 years ago, when we laid the foundation for
our women to progress. The PAP’s first election manifesto, “The Tasks Ahead”, not only outlined its promises to
build homes and schools, reorganise the civil service and build a strong and united trade union movement, it also
put across its policy on women’s rights. There was a strong desire to uplift our womenfolk in our society. Five
women were fielded in the election. Two of them, Chan Choy Siong and Ho Puay Choo founded the PAP

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Women’s League, the forerunner of today’s PAP Woman’s Wing who are tabling the motion today.

As Madam Er’s story shows, education was a fundamental driver of change. Mr Lee Kuan Yew said that “the
key is education. Old-fashioned attitudes of teaching women enough to be literate and useful wives have
undergone profound changes in the last 20 years. Societies which do not educate and use half their potential
because they are women are those which will be worse off.” So, we embarked on universal education for all
children regardless of gender. Today, half of our graduates are women

In 1961, we passed the Women’s Charter – a seminal legislation to protect and advance the rights of women and
girls. Many of you would be familiar with this Charter as I had recently tabled Amendments to it. Many of us
actually take it for granted, what we enjoy today, we forget where we came from. But the Women’s Charter was
a powerful signal on how we viewed women in Singapore, and how we were going to recognise and support
them.

We have also made significant progress on the health and employment front. In a recent dialogue with Chinese
journalist Yang Lan in February, I highlighted that our literacy rate for women is 95.4%. Our full-time
employment rate for women aged 25-64 has increased from 63.1% ten years ago, to 72% last year. This brings
us from previously 23rd to 12th now, compared to other OECD countries. Our infant and maternal mortality rates
are amongst the lowest in the world. Our women also live longer - the life expectancy at birth for females is 84.9
years, more than men. In terms of gender equality, the latest UN 2016 Human Development Report ranked
Singapore 11th out of 159 countries on the UN Gender Inequality Index2.

Madam Speaker, we are not there yet, but not bad. We have come a long way. We have established strong
foundations but we must further build on them. More can and must be done. I would like to highlight the changes
we need on two fronts. First, we must eliminate barriers in the public sphere, be they in the workplace or in the
community, to ensure that women reach their full potential. Women have made and can make significant
contributions to not only the economy, but also our society at large. So it is important to remember that it’s not
just only the economic front and the economic value that we look at them. There is also a broader value. As a
nation, we would be foolish not to value and nurture our women. Second, we need to make changes on the
domestic front, in keeping with the changing realities of our modern times, to recognise the evolving roles for
both men and women at home, and in their personal relationships.

Realising Women’s Full Potential in the “Public Sphere”

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a) Providing More Options for our Women (and Men)

Like men, women are not a homogenous population with uniform preferences. Some prefer to focus on work,
while others prefer to focus on family. Some want to do both. There will always be trade-offs. Our job is to
respect these choices and work them within the larger collective aspiration. We aim to put in place an
environment that supports our women and men to be able to make these choices. I emphasise that we must never
trivialize choices made by fathers and mothers to spend more time with children. It is invaluable both for the
family and for society.

For women, the need to balance career and familial commitments is usually more intense, because of the way we
have viewed them. Some face discrimination in their jobs. Others take a less linear career path, to focus on their
family. In doing so, they may find it difficult to return to the workforce. All these are real challenges, especially
in these times of economic uncertainties that we are facing.

As Ms Tin Pei Ling, Mr Alex Yam, Ms Cheryl Chan, Er Dr Lee Bee Wah, Mr Louis Ng, Ms Sun Xueling, Ms K.
Thanaletchmi, Mr Leon Perera and Mr Desmond Choo pointed out, that flexible work arrangements is vital. I
totally agree. The Government has promoted and implemented flexible work arrangements and progressive work
practices over the years, and we must continue to keep up these efforts. Your suggestions and ideas are certainly
valued. This includes the Tripartite Standards on Flexible Arrangements which MOM has introduced. We want
employers to offer these options to their employees. It’s not good just enough to have them available, we must
offer them too.

b) Building Capacity to Support our Women (and Men)

Ms Tin Pei Ling argued for building capacity to help women in juggling work and family priorities. Women who
have taken a break from work to focus on their families may wish to return to the workforce after their children
have grown up. Yet, they may find it difficult to start working again – perhaps, because sometimes after they exit
the workforce, their skills have “expired”, especially at the rate where technology is changing. Ms Tin, Er Dr Lee
Bee Wah, Ms Cheryl Chan, Mr Darryl David, and Ms Rahayu Mahzam suggested having a customised
SkillsFuture package to help these women update their skills, to facilitate their return to the workforce. Minister
Ong Ye Kung explained how we can and should offer guidance and support to help all the different groups to
sieve out the different modules that are available. We need to create more modules that may be suited to the
different needs in society. Indeed, a more user-centric approach would be useful.

Working couples who have just started a family may also need support in caring for their young children. On
this front, the Government has endeavoured to improve the quality, accessibility and affordability of pre-school
services.
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To increase accessibility, the Early Childhood Development Agency, or ECDA, has increased the number of
child care places island-wide, especially in estates with more young families. We work closely with HDB on
that. Since 2012, the number of child care places has increased by more than 40% to about 140,000 places. We
will add another 10,000 child care places by early next year. To support parents with child care and infant care
expenses and ensure affordability, all parents received subsidies. Additional subsidies are also available to the
broad majority of lower and middle income families. For non-working mothers who are retrenched, looking for
jobs, undergoing training, we will consider their issues on a case by case basis; so that these subsidies are also
available to them.

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah mentioned that working parents prefer to be near their young children during the work day.
To address this, Ms Tin suggested having more care facilities near workplaces. You’ll be pleased to know that
ECDA has worked with the Urban Redevelopment Authority to facilitate the setting up of child care centres in
commercial developments under the Community and Sports Facilities Scheme. Under this Scheme, the
developers for selected Government Land Sale sites are also required to provide space for child care centres. Last
year, there were 450 child care centres located in or near commercial and government buildings - that’s about
one third of all child care centres.

Some parents work shifts, and may require child care services in line with their working hours. Ms Tin and Ms
Sun Xueling suggested extending the operating hours of child care centres. Currently, they are required to
operate full-day services from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m daily on weekdays to cater to the needs of most working parents.
Some centres may also choose to extend their operating hours to better cater to parents’ schedules. Currently,
there are already 52 centres offering extended operating hours island-wide.

Ms Cheryl Chan, Ms Joan Pereira, and Ms Tin gave several thoughtful recommendations to better support those
who are caring for their elderly family members. MOS Lam Pin Min addressed some of these recommendations
yesterday. Caring for our elderly is a key focus for MOH, as we address the issue of ageing in Singapore.

c) Facilitating Women’s to Leadership Positions

Much of the effort I have elaborated on so far deals with the career progression of our women. However, this is
not enough. As a country, and as an economy, we must not underestimate the contributions that women can make
at the apex of our corporates.

Mr Louis Ng, Mr Leon Perera, Mr Vikram Nair, Ms Jessica Tan and Ms Tin agree that having women in
corporate leadership makes good sense, for businesses and the economy. This is not about women’s rights.

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Today, our women are well-educated and contribute actively to our economy. The proportion of women in senior
management roles in Singapore is about 21% - similar to other countries like Australia, US and the UK. Yet,
women’s representation on our boards is about 9.9%, as of December 2016; which is less than half the
representation rate in these countries.

To address this, my Ministry set up a Diversity Action Committee (or DAC in short) in August 2014 to build up
women’s representation on boards of companies listed on Singapore Exchange and to expand the pool of board-
ready women. It comprises respected business leaders from the private sector like SingTel, CDL, Shell, and
IBM; entrepreneur and professional firms; as well as representatives from the people and public sectors.

DAC has recommended to enhance the Code of Corporate Governance (or CG Code in short) to require listed
companies to disclose their board diversity policy (including gender) and their progress towards achieving these
objectives. PAP Women’s Wing and BoardAgender have made a similar joint recommendation to revise the CG
Code to require companies to disclose their board diversity (including gender) in their annual reports, on a
“comply or explain” basis. BoardAgender is an initiative under the Singapore Council of Women’s
Organisations, which aims to facilitate greater awareness of the benefits of gender balanced business, as well as
the advancement of women into senior leadership positions and the boardroom. MAS has formed a Corporate
Governance Council to review the CG Code, and we look forward to developments on this front.

I dislike the fact that Singapore ranks near the bottom behind other key developed markets like Australia and UK
in terms of women on boards; in fact even behind our neighbouring countries. Other countries are progressing at
a much faster rate. Globally, shareholders and institutional investors increasingly view women on boards as
being important for board effectiveness. This is something that Singapore corporates should not ignore anymore.

I appreciate the joint recommendation by PAP Women’s Wing and BoardAgender. Minister Grace Fu recently
announced a declared ambition for at least 20% of directorships on SGX-listed companies to be held by qualified
women by 2020. This is timely and I support this target. In fact, DAC discussed the same issue at its recent
meeting in February 2017. For SGX-listed companies, DAC is suggesting a multi-tiered target: 20% by 2020,
25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. Because, getting women on boards is a journey, it’s not a destination. DAC will
share more details separately. I want to see more women breaking the ‘glass ceilings’ in the next few years!

d) Women and Social Capital

Beyond business, I think it is as also very important for us to look at the non-profit sector. The Centre for Non-
Profit Leadership and the Charities Unit have carried out an inaugural study on non-profit board leadership. The
study shows that more women are represented on the boards of charities, compared with businesses.

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Helen Keller once said, “Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others”. We have
many women who exemplify this. One sterling example is Mrs Leaena Tambyah, who retired as senior adviser to
the Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) in 2013, after many years of devoting her time and effort
helping others, especially children with special needs. Another example, is Mrs Thung Syn Neo, a social work
pioneer, whose key contribution is the concept of the Family Service Centres that we have today.

Women leaders in the non-profit sector have shown that a combination of “heart and mind” can go a long way in
building up our social capital, and helping us to become a caring and inclusive society. While women sitting on
the boards of these charities make up about 31%, 13% of the charities still have no female representation. My
Ministry and NCSS will look into this. I believe we can improve on this figure

e) Protecting Vulnerable Women

While we provide support for women to balance their work-family commitments, and excel in the business and
non-profit sectors, we must not forget that there are also vulnerable groups of women who require more support.
We must also help them to overcome particular barriers so that they too can also realise their potential.

One such group is single mothers, which has been raised by Ms Cheryl Chan, Mr Leon Perera, Mr Faisal Manap
and Ms Joan Pereira. Some of you when we talk about singles refer to divorcees, some of you refer to unwed
mothers. We continue to support parenthood within marriage. But whatever the circumstances we remain child-
centric. It is important for us to do so. So single parents’ children get the same health and education benefits as
any other citizen child. We have also made policy changes in recent years to provide more support for parents to
support their children. For example, we have recently extended the full 16-week maternity leave to unwed
mothers, and their children are also now eligible for a Child Development Account (CDA).

I have also highlighted several times in this house about KidSTART, which will help parents who need support
with the development of their children. This extensive effort does not just focus on children, but to also link
families to community resources with their other social and financial needs. This programme focuses on the
groups which many of us are concerned about. I believe we will make a significant amount of difference.

Ms Joan Pereira appealed to treat a single mother and her children as a “family nucleus” in HDB applications. It
is very clear to us that housing is an important institution for children’s well-being and development. Our
housing policies aim to address the needs of the vulnerable without undermining self-reliance, family support
and parity with other families. I would like to assure Ms Joan Pereira that single unwed parents are not without
housing options. Depending on their age, they may apply for HDB flats themselves, or jointly with their parents.
But let me state this again quite categorically. On a case-by-case basis, HDB make exceptions to help single
parents with their housing. Do surface their cases to us and we will look at it.
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While I specifically mentioned the Women’s Charter earlier, something we often overlook is how our laws have
not only made Singapore a safer place for women. It is something that we should not take for granted. It is not
something that women in other countries necessarily have. But at the same time we need to make sure that we
shape society’s ideas about what is not acceptable. Violence against women is unequivocally wrong. Although
married persons have conjugal rights over each other, such rights should be exercised within reasonable
behaviour. Married women should have the same access to protection as unmarried women. We are thus actively
reviewing the issue of marital immunity for rape, and will give an update once the review is completed.

Strengthening the Home Front

Madam Speaker, let me turn to the homefront. I believe that this is an important area where we can provide
support for women to achieve their true potential. I think it is important for us to remember that the first line of
support surely must be the family. That is something that cannot be mandated and that is something all of us can
play a part in. Dr Intan Azura, Mr Louis Ng, Mr Leon Perera, Mr Darryl David and Ms Tin Pei Ling reminded us
that we need to have a cultural shift and mindset change, especially about the share of care responsibilities. Mr
Kok Heng Leun also reminded us that eliminating gender stereotypes starts from young. What we do at home as
mothers and fathers, husbands and wives is extremely powerful. By our example, we socialise our daughters and
sons into their future roles when they set up their own homes. We can either help them move with the times and
evolve more appropriate interpretations, or we can unnecessarily confine and restrict their understanding of the
roles and duties of mothers and fathers, and of husbands and wives.

Even today, while women in Singapore enjoy equality in many aspects of society, including education and
employment, the greater responsibility of caregiving within the family continues to fall on women. We need to
change the paradigm relating to the roles men and women play. As husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, we
should step up to play our part at home. Parenting responsibilities can and should be shared with our wives.
Household chores should not be seen as only the purview of female family members, including the domestic
help. Otherwise, how can our society progress? If the women around us continue to bear the disproportionate
burden of family and caregiving responsibilities, it is less likely that they can achieve all that they are capable of.

Madam Speaker, gender roles are evolving. The 2012 Marriage and Parenthood study showed 99% of
respondents, both men and women, either strongly agreed or agreed that “Fathers and mothers are equally
important as caregivers for children.” However, in terms of division of labour within the household, day-to-day
chores and childcare responsibilities mostly still fall on the women’s shoulders. Only 13% of the respondents
said that the role of cooking was shared equally between spouses, while only 23% said that this role of feeding
young children was undertaken equally by both parents.

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Marriage is an equal partnership. As husbands and fathers, it is important to share the household and parenting
responsibilities with our wives. This would provide working women with the necessary support to alleviate the
work-life conflict that they face. Research also shows this brings about stronger and happier marriages, as both
parties better understand and feel supported in managing day-to-day chores and concerns. This means stronger
families, stronger families mean a much better environment for our children to grow up in.

Studies have also shown that children with active fathers have better social skills, do better academically and
have less behavioural problems. Fathers, themselves, are more fulfilled as they are no longer the distant
breadwinner. They are able to develop close bonds and ties with their children.

As much as possible, we should start bonding with our children from birth. So, I urge fathers to use the two
weeks of paternity leave which has been made mandatory from this year, to be present in the lives of your
children. Fathers can also tap on four weeks of shared parental leave, with effect from July this year. During the
Committee of Supply debate a few weeks ago, SMS Mrs Josephine Teo announced that from July this year,
public servants will get an additional four weeks of unpaid infant-care leave per parent, as part of a three-year
pilot. This is available to both mothers and fathers. Please use it.

Madam Speaker, the Government can legislate these leave provisions to encourage shared parental responsibility,
and fathers to play a more active role in their children’s lives. But only families can decide what is best for them,
as family time is something that the Government cannot dictate.

A 2013 survey on Social Attitudes of Singaporeans indicated that men are changing their attitudes. 58% of men
in 2013 (compared to 44% of men in 2009) said that their work demands ate into their family time more than
they liked. The point that more men are identifying a conflict between work and family commitments is also
highlighted in the 2014 Employer Alliance survey, where men indicated an increasing desire to have flexible
work arrangements so they can help out with the children and domestic responsibilities. That’s a good indicator.
Businesses must therefore realise that employees, including the men, do not perform their best when they feel
conflicted and are unable to juggle career and home demands. Enlightened businesses know that when they help
both mothers and fathers manage work-life, they are the ones that will succeed in retaining talent, and recruiting
new talent. Of the 500 bosses polled, over 80 per cent said they felt work-life initiatives are important to improve
employee satisfaction, raise productivity and retain talent. So the surveys look positive but we need to begin to
‘walk the talk’ across the board.

Members of this House will be familiar with the Dads for Life movement and the Center for Fathering. Many
have asked me why is there not a Moms for Life Movement or a Center for Mothering? Do they not have a role
to play too? My response is that moms are already for life and mothers are already at the center of everything!

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Today the burden is uneven. Attitudes are changing and that is encouraging. At home, responsibilities
unfortunately are disproportionately borne by women. Playing the roles as we should as husbands and fathers,
will help level the playing field for women in so many ways.

Conclusion

Madam Speaker, even as we push for the elimination of gender biases, I hope we remember that this journey to
ensure a level playing field for women in Singapore is an ongoing one. Builds on remarkable work done by our
pioneers. The lives of women in Singapore have improved significantly over the years through the various
Government policies and initiatives, as well as more enlightened societal perspectives and practices.

But our work is not done. We must continue to remove the barriers faced by women in the public sphere. In this
regard, we will seriously consider the many useful and insightful recommendations that the Members have put
forth these two days.

However, fundamental societal change can never be achieved by the Government alone. The change also has to
take place at home, and in our workplaces and communities. All of us have a stake, whether as employers or
colleagues in the workplace, as civil society or as family. We must remove glass ceilings and give Singaporean
women - our mothers and sisters, and our wives and daughters - the opportunity to achieve their fullest
potential. As Dr Aline Wong said in a book entitled ‘Our Lives to Live’, “True equality lies in a woman’s ability
to realise her full potential and be her true self in whatever she endeavours to achieve.” Let us endeavour to make
this happen.