On Tuesday (3 Aug), the Worker’s Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Sengkang GRC He Ting Ru put forth a private-members motion on empowering women. Ms He noted that while efforts have made progress for women possible so far, “true gender equality” hasn’t been achieved yet.

In her opening remarks, Ms He cautioned against approaching gender equality with preconceived ideas on what is right or wrong for a woman in society and how they can be helped.

“This is not helpful because women are not victims and to treat us as such only continues to reinforce some of the patriarchal prejudices which have held women back from achieving our fullest potential for too long,” she explained.

Ms He also urged people to stop thinking of gender equality as “gender wars,” adding that this is especially the case for Singapore where people are considered as the “only natural resource”.

“Women and girls represent half our population, and any form of gender inequality means that we, as a society, are not able to fulfil our full potential,” stressing that gender equality benefits all of society and is a bread-and-butter issue,” she continued.

Move away from traditional measures of success

Ms He went on to touch on three of the biggest impediments to gender equality, starting with viewing women’s issues through the lens of traditional measures of success such as climbing the career ladder and economic cunning power.

“Work traditionally done by women—such as caring, running households and looking after their families—continue to be seen as being inferior or merely ancillary to the ‘real work’ of earning wages,” she said.

“Conversely, the issue cuts both ways: it is a shame that the worth of a man is also often based so much on his ability to earn wages to support his family, with little acknowledgement given to his wish to also participate in the unpaid labour of the household and the care of his loved ones should he choose to do so.”

Ms He argued that Singapore should strive to respect the choices women make, and leave room for them to pursue “non-conventional” paths in life without assuming that there is something wrong with them, or defining them by their relationship status.

Here, the MP pointed out the role of the media in shaping such a message. In particular, she quoted a Channel NewsAsia (CNA) article dated 30 June this year that attempted to explore the trend of highly educated women remaining single.

The article asked, “Are they too picky, too busy, too independent, too intimidating”

Ms He retorted, “I’m just not sure if we will ever see questions like this being asked if a highly educated unmarried man in his 40s were to be presented the same [way].”

Some solutions she proposed include continuing to build up formal mentorship programs with both female and male mentors at various levels in corporate structures to support women.

In terms of policy, Ms He proposed the removal of barriers to women who wish to re-enter the workforce via targeted job matching and paid re-entry schemes.

“These schemes could range from mentorships to skills, updating and should offer a permanent position at their completion,” she noted, pointing out that such proposals were included in her party’s 2020 manifesto.

Beyond that, Ms He also highlighted the need for laws that better protect women, especially in the workplace, adding that this is a “crucial yet missing part” of the current legislative framework.

“The current TAFEP regime does not go far enough in providing a framework for accountability for perpetrators and neglects the nuances of such situations by placing the burden of reporting the incident on the victim,” she explained.

Study the impact of COVID-19 on women in Singapore

Moving on, Ms He also touched on the impact of COVID on women, noting that studies that have shown women across different societies across the globe have been “disproportionately affected economically, mentally and physically by the changes and disruption brought about by COVID-19”.

As such, she called for the Government to study and publish data and statistics to measure the adverse impact that the pandemic has had on women in Singapore specifically, as well as to carry out a longitudinal study on the different spheres in which women have been adversely affected.

Ms He stressed the need to do this in order to pick up on negative trends before they become “hard-baked” into the country’s economy and society.

Address challenges faced by ageing women

Citing Singapore’s ageing population, Ms He went on to stress the importance of implementing sustainable policies to address concerns faced by women as they age, from the growing burden of informal care to dwindling CPF retirement savings.

“Women are more likely to take on a disproportionate role in providing informal care, and often at an economic cost,” she elaborated.

“Coupled with the gender wage gap, this is something that has serious implications on women’s financial resources, and in particular retirement adequacy.”

Highlighting findings showing that women have a tougher time meeting their basic retirement sum in CPF, Ms He asserted that the various top-up schemes have not yet addressed the gap between genders.

As such, she urged the Government to relax the rules on the transfer of CPF funds before the age of 55.

On top of that, Ms He also reiterated her party’s stance against the Government’s current policy of requiring women to pay higher Careshield premium, describing it as a “double penalty” given that many women are already faced with a gender pay gap and are taking on less paid work due to their caring responsibilities.

The policy, she pointed out, is not only “unfair” but also sets a dangerous precedent where policy application is differentiated within society.

“National policies such as CareShield Life should pool risk across differences and instead share the burden of care, especially as our population ages,” Ms He stressed.

After the motion was discussed in parliament and amendments made, she said in her closing remarks that the WP looks forward to scrutinising the Government’s plans in the upcoming White Paper on the subject.