Keynote Speech by President Halimah Yacob at South China Morning Post's 'Women of Our Time' Virtual Conference

Good morning.

Thank you for having me at this Inaugural “Women of Our Time” virtual conference.

A year ago, we could not have imagined that we would be celebrating International Woman’s Day through a virtual conference instead of a physical gathering. The COVID-19 pandemic, which spread rapidly through the whole world since it started, has caused serious social and economic disruptions, and widened global inequalities. It has affected women disproportionately and exposed them to greater vulnerabilities. This points to the need for more urgent and coordinated efforts to support women’s development, otherwise the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals on Gender Equality will remain a pipe dream.

The UN’s targets include valuing unpaid work, ensuring that women have equal chance to take up leadership roles in the economy, as well as eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls. Since the adoption of these goals, progress in these areas have been patchy, and COVID-19 has worsened the situation.

In April last year, a UN report recorded a rise in unpaid care work and a surge in domestic violence as key areas of concern. Working women were more vulnerable to retrenchments and job losses, as many women were employed in service sectors that were hard hit, such as travel related, tourism, hospitality and retail. Working mothers had to make tough choices and struggle with taking care of their children’s educational needs when schools and day care centres closed. The pandemic has caused not just a health and economic fallout but also undermined women’s progress.

Under the circumstances, what should be our response? Let me just touch on three areas to advance the cause of gender equality and ensure greater fairness, equity and inclusivity in the treatment of women.

First, governments need to prioritise gender equality and place it at the centre of their development programmes. They need to establish effective national policies and implementation programmes, to better integrate women in the economy and society. No doubt the different economic, social and political factors prevalent in countries contribute to the different outcomes but more often the slow progress is compounded by a lack of political will. If we really believe in sustainable development as the way ahead for humanity’s survival, then it behooves everyone, especially government leaders, policy makers and businesses, to put this at the top of their agenda and allocate adequate resources, effort and focus to uplift women’s lives. Widening inequalities weaken our social fabric and undermines solidarity. It also retards human potential and affects future growth. In developing and carrying out this development agenda, it is also important to ensure that women are represented at all levels of decision making, so that their voices can be heard, and their needs and aspirations are better reflected.

Second, we need to ensure that women have equal access to education and training and labour market information, so that they can participate meaningfully in the economy with the right skills and capabilities, and with the right access to jobs and opportunities. An OECD report articulates the situation well - greater gender equality can boost economic growth, enhance productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions more representative. A landmark McKinsey Global Institute Report finds that narrowing the gender gap could add US $12 trillion to the global GDP by 2025. So, the economic arguments are compelling as to why we should educate and train our women and girls and provide them access to opportunities.

However, it is important that we train women beyond the traditional sectors where the risk of job redundancies is greater due to technological and structural changes and climate change. A key growth area that we need to focus on, particularly in the recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, is how to get more women in the STEM fields, as currently there is a huge gender gap. According to a 2017 UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization report, women make up only 35% of higher educational students studying STEM fields worldwide, with the lowest enrolment in subjects such as information, communications and technology, and engineering. The continued lack of women in these fields will put them at a disadvantage as they will be excluded from the many good careers, particularly as technology has become an important enabler in practically all aspects of our life.

Third, we need to see greater, measurable improvements at the workplace. Business leaders should set targets to narrow the wage gap between genders and ensure gender balance in their hiring and career advancement policies, particularly in leadership positions. To meaningfully achieve this, they need to allocate enough resources, set gender equality as a business objective and make it trackable by all in the company. When businesses accept the need for accountability in making their workplaces more gender balanced and inclusive, it sends a powerful signal that reverberates throughout society. In today’s world, we cannot trivialise the power that business leaders have in driving change, as they have immense resources, operate globally and wield considerable influence. We should, and can, aim for a world where differences in job opportunities, hierarchical positions and wage gaps based on gender are relics of the past.

Let me now share with you some developments in Singapore on gender equality.

In Singapore, for the first time we have dedicated 2021 as the Year of Celebrating SG Women. It will provide us with an opportunity to celebrate the key milestones that we have achieved together, including the introduction and amendments to the Women’s Charter, a historic piece of legislation that defines the rights and protections for women and children. We will also celebrate men who help to debunk stereotypes, change mindsets and play an active role in supporting and uplifting women. We want our society to value, respect and create opportunities for our women to contribute alongside men, and for this to be a collective effort.

Last September, the Singapore Government also launched a series of engagement sessions with partners from the people and private sectors, as well as women and youth organisations, to gather feedback and recommendations on issues concerning Singapore women. These sessions are called Conversations on Singapore Women’s Development. Through these sessions, we get to hear the aspirations that Singaporeans have for the progress of women.

The first session was held virtually with 60 people in attendance. Since, then, we have had 31 conversations – with more than 1,700 participants coming from a multitude of profiles including working mothers, men, housewives, women leaders, and youths. We are not stopping yet, as the conversations will carry on throughout the first half of the year.

This committed effort to solicit ideas and suggestions from the ground up is aimed at giving the Singapore Government a good basis to develop a White Paper on issues concerning Singapore women at home, workplaces, schools and in the community. One recurrent feedback that we received is on the need to change mindsets about gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles in our society. This is something that is probably the most difficult to overcome as you cannot legislate such a change but need to continuously educate and engage to encourage more positive social norms and behaviours.

To help increase female representation on boards across the private, people and public sectors in Singapore, we formed the Council for Board Diversity in 2019. A more diverse board allows organisations to have access to fresh perspectives for better risk management, leading to more robust corporate governance and improved stewardships of organisations. Women on boards are also an important and visible form of diversity that can be tracked and sends a strong signal to its stakeholders and employees of its governance and corporate culture. As at 2019, the 100 largest primary-listed companies in Singapore achieved 16.2% women’s participation on boards. This is a significant improvement as there were only 19 all-male boards amongst them compared to 2013 where half of these boards were all-male. We have done some good work since we started, but I wish that companies can move faster and give this effort a greater boost.

Let me conclude by commending SCMP for organizing this Inaugural Women of Our Time Conference. There are many women of great caliber and capabilities from all walks of life gathered at this conference to share their very rich and relevant experience with other women. Many have broken the glass ceiling to reach where they are now. As the trailblazers, their paths have not been easy, but I am confident that their journey will inspire and motivate many of our young women to similarly break barriers and go against all odds. I am confident that they will be so moved that they will be like what Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

I wish everyone a fruitful discussion. Thank you.