Keynote Speech by President Halimah Yacob at the Women's Forum Global Meeting 2021

Ms Audrey Tcherkoff, Managing Director of Women’s Forum

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

I am delighted to join you today at the Women's Forum Global Meeting 2021 and to speak on the topic of “Building an inclusive post-COVID economy”.

Singapore is honoured to have hosted the Women’s Forum in 2018 and the Women’s Forum Asia in 2019. The Women’s Forum is a unique platform to encourage dialogue and enable concrete actions to promote gender equality and build a more sustainable, fair, and inclusive world. It is also a platform for us to hold discussions on strengthening women’s leadership roles in our society and economy.

Over the years, the role of women has evolved. Globally, women empowerment and gender equality have become key priorities of many economic and political systems. More opportunities and support have been given to women.

In particular, progress has been made to promote women’s development in East Asia and in the Pacific. According to the World Economic Forum report, as of 2021 the overall gender gap has been closed by 68.9 percent in the region.

However, COVID-19 is threatening to reverse this trend. Numerous studies have shown that women were exposed to greater vulnerabilities arising from the pandemic. Whether it was the economic fallout or mental toll, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected women globally.

Over the past 20 months, the crisis has increased gender-based violence, limited access to education for girls, and further tipped the already unequal burden of care and housework carried by women, hence affecting their work opportunities. For instance, with work-from-home arrangements, women might find it challenging to balance their work and caregiving responsibilities with increasingly blurred work-life boundaries.

Equality between men and women has been a fundamental pillar for Singapore. In 1961, Singapore passed the Women’s Charter, which institutionalised the equal standing of men and women in marriage and provided for the welfare and protection of Singapore women. Over the years, we have improved healthcare services for women, set up Family Service Centres islandwide to support vulnerable women and families in need, implemented universal education, and put in place many other policies and initiatives to ensure that our women are treated equally as their male counterparts. As a demonstration of our commitment towards the continued advancement of our women, Singapore acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1995. Through our efforts, we hope to deepen and grow the partnership between our men and women, with respect as the cornerstone.

Our efforts to advance women’s development are reflected in various statistics and global rankings. Life expectancy at birth for females is 86.1 years, higher than men. Our infant and maternal mortality rates are amongst the lowest in the world. Literacy rate for women is 95.8% and half of our university graduates are women. The employment rate for women aged 25 - 64 has been steadily increasing, from about 72.1% five years ago, to 73.2% last year. According to the United Nations Human Development Report 2020, Singapore ranked 12^th out of 162 countries. We have also consistently been in Group 1, which comprises countries with high equality in Human Development Index achievements between men and women.

As we discuss specific policies and programmes that will improve the lives of women, we also have to consider how we may strengthen the ethos of fairness and justice in our society, where men and women partner each other as equals, progress together and pursue their aspirations freely, and where we take care of the vulnerable amongst us. This requires a societal mindset shift and everyone – individuals, families, corporates, community partners, the Government, and others – to play our part.

For this to happen, we will need to foster a culture of partnership. In Singapore, we launched the Singapore Together movement in 2019 to do just that – to deepen partnerships and enable our people to work with one another and with the Government to build a better future together. As part of Singapore Together, we organised the Emerging Stronger Conversations in 2020/21. This brought together Singaporeans from diverse backgrounds to share their concerns and aspirations arising from the pandemic. To address the major themes from these conversations, stakeholders from different sectors are coming together to form Alliances for Action (AfAs) and partnerships, to work collaboratively so that Singapore can adapt to a new normal as one united society. An example is the AfA on Work-Life Harmony that was convened earlier this year. The government, employers, employees, HR professionals and other community stakeholders worked alongside each other to develop initiatives and resources to help workers, including women, achieve better work-life harmony. This allows individuals – both men and women – to better manage their family responsibilities, while remaining in and progress in their careers.

The Singapore Government dedicated 2021 as the Year of Celebrating SG Women. Amidst the crisis, we honour the achievements of SG women, promote women’s development, and foster a more equitable society for all. While the fundamentals of Singapore’s legislation and policies remain strong, the Government continues to look ahead to understand the needs and aspirations of SG Women. By doing so, we can ensure that our laws and policies evolve with the changing times.

To this end, Singapore launched the national Conversations on Singapore Women’s Development last year as part of Singapore Together to understand Singaporeans’ aspirations for our women and the mindset changes required for the further advancement of Singapore women. Together with community partners, a total of 160 Conversations were organised, involving nearly 6,000 participants from all walks of life, including youths, working mothers, homemakers, women leaders, and men.

Overall, five key themes emerged from the Conversations. First, promote equal opportunities in the workplace, so that women are similarly able to pursue their career aspirations and excel at work. Second, better support for caregivers, many of whom are women. Third, enhance protection for women, both physically and in the online sphere. Fourth, more support for vulnerable groups of women and fifth, a whole-of-society effort to shift mindsets and overcome stereotypes about gender roles.

The Government is studying the feedback and ideas shared at the Conversations, which will be consolidated into a White Paper and tabled in Singapore’s Parliament early next year. We will also continue to work with our community partners to implement these proposals and address these issues together.

Singapore’s whole-of-society partnership approach put us in good stead to create better opportunities for all, safeguard mobility, grow inclusiveness, secure sustainability, and of course, strengthen the engagement and purposeful leadership of women.

At this year’s Women's Forum 2021, we should all turn our attention to action. The pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of the current system and showed us that we can recover from crises only if we are united. It is important for us to learn from this crisis and prepare for the future and unknown challenges that lie ahead.

I urge you to use the Women’s Forum as a platform not only for dialogues and conversations, but also to come together to create innovative and inclusive solutions and to amplify each other’s capacity for impact. Let us use our voices to represent the unrepresented, and to make people hear the unheard and see the invisible. Let us transform this crisis into an opportunity to build a more equitable and inclusive world together.

I wish everyone a fruitful conference.

Thank you.