AWARE: Prohibit gender discrimination and set quota for women in Parliament

Media release

Gender Equity Essential for Singapore’s Next Lap

AWARE-NUSS conference calls for Constitution to prohibit gender discrimination and quota set for women in Parliament

Singapore, March 8^th 2011 – For all the progress made in the last 25 years, gender discrimination still exists in Singapore today.  This was the unanimous view of the 200 or so participants at the Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives: Shaping the Next 25 Years conference held on Sat 5 march.

This discrimination must be eradicated and gender equity achieved if Singapore is to truly flourish in the next 25 years and if the challenges of the low fertility rate and the ageing population are to be tackled effectively, the conference participants agreed.

The conference, organised by AWARE and the National University of Singapore Society, was a reprise of the eponymous 1984 NUSS forum which led to the founding of AWARE.  It marked both the close of AWARE’s 25^th anniversary celebrations and the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8^th.

Following presentations by Singapore’s leading feminists, participants took part in facilitated group   discussions and drew up a gender equity wish list to present to policy makers.

The key recommendations to policy makers are:

1. A quota of 30 per cent be set for women in Parliament as recommended by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was ratified by Singapore in 1995.
2. The Singapore Constitution be amended to prohibit gender discrimination.
3. All policies and legislation be reviewed and all gender discriminatory laws, policies and practices be removed or replaced with laws, policies and practices that promote an equitable and sustainable work-life balance for both women and men.
4. Gender studies be added to the core curriculum for all students, and in the Civil Service.
5. Budgetary allocations to health care be increased significantly so as to ensure the good health of older people.
6. Care-giving (of the young and the elderly) should be recognised as a gender-neutral skill, and the quality of, and access to, care facilities and services for children, elderly and the disabled should be improved

Recommendations were also made for corporations and civil society, as well as individual men and women, to consider. The main ones are:

7.  Employers should adopt non-discriminatory policies and practices as part of their                organisations’ corporate culture, including zero tolerance of sexual harassment.

8.  Employers should optimise flexibility for employees in terms of workplace and                        working hours, based on the understanding that productivity is enhanced by                            workers who are able to sustain a supportive work-life balance.

9.  Civil society organisations, including trade unions, NGOs and VWOs, should                             systematically monitor and make known the impact on women of  discriminatory                   policies, laws and practices, especially those in the vulnerable groups such as older               women, disabled or minority women, and women in the lower-income group.

10.  Individual men and women should seek to build equal partnerships in all spheres                  of life, including the workplace and the home, with shared responsibilities for the                    care of the young and the old.