Speech by President Halimah Yacob at The Codette Project's International Women's Day Event 2022

Ms Nurul Jihadah Hussain, Founder, The Codette Project

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good afternoon. I am pleased to join such a diverse group of women to celebrate your achievements and journey within the tech industry.

The theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is ‘Break the Bias’. Tech is often perceived as a male-dominated space, but it does not always have to be. Indeed, women are making headway in the tech space in Singapore. In Singapore, a report published by the Boston Consulting Group and the Infocomm Media Development Authority in 2020 found that women comprise 41 per cent of our tech workforce, significantly higher than the global average of 28 per cent.

The Government has been working with industry partners to further expand opportunities for women in tech through the SG Women in Tech initiative. Last year, the initiative launched a corporate pledge calling on companies to create better support systems in the workplace for women, particularly those who are younger. Ms Nurul Jihadah Hussain and Ms Liyana Fauzi from The Codette Project also made it to the Singapore 100 Women In Tech List, which recognises and celebrates women who have made significant contributions to the tech industry. I commend them for their achievements, which will hopefully inspire other girls in the community to enter the tech space.

Beyond government and industry efforts to encourage women to enter the field, community partners also play an important role in demystifying the tech industry. This is especially useful for women who are interested in the field, but do not know how to break into the industry.

The Codette Project has been one example of a ground-up, ground-breaking initiative since its establishment in 2015. As the first tech community organisation focused on minority or Muslim women in Singapore, the impact of The Codette Project has gained recognition on local and global platforms, including by tech giants like Google and Facebook. As the first organisation in Singapore to create an all-women hackathon in 2018, The Codette Project has created a safe and welcoming environment for women of all backgrounds to participate in tech.

Today, in celebration of all your tech journeys, I am happy to launch the ‘Success Looks Like This’ exhibition and the third round of the ‘Codette Cares’ scholarship. Three groups of people deserve mention – the mentors, mentees, and volunteers.

There are many of you here who have been featured as part of the ‘Success Looks Like This’ exhibition. You have been trailblazers in your own tech journeys. You are diverse in age, background, and experience. Your diversity is a source of strength, as it has enabled each of you to bring your unique viewpoints into the tech industry, regardless of whether you started off as an engineer, designer, or HR professional. It may be daunting at times in your tech journey to be the only representative from your community. However, you persevered and achieved success in your own way. Congratulations to all of you and I hope that you will continue to be role models to young women looking to enter the tech industry.

To the mentees who are here as part of the ‘Codette Cares’ project, I would first like to offer my encouragement to you. Many of you have also spoken about feeling very alone in your journey. You balance a multitude of roles on top of paving your way in tech. Despite this, you have stayed the course and done your best to tackle these challenges head-on. Working with your mentors from tech companies like Stripe, Facebook, and Zendesk, you answer the question of where you belong in the tech industry every single day. Singapore’s tech industry needs you to keep going. We are seeing rapid growth in this sector, and will continue to journey with you – not only in building up cutting-edge skillsets for the jobs of the future, but also laying down pathways that will help more young people like you access these opportunities.

For The Codette Project’s team, who have tirelessly worked on these projects as volunteers, I would like to thank you for supporting underrepresented women in their tech journeys. You are an example of how uncertain times can bring out the best in people, and I hope that you will continue to inspire active and collective action for our community.

Congratulations again to all of you here for your journeys to success in the tech industry. I urge you to use your influence and your time to create and amplify success for those who will come after you.

Thank you.