As Singapore marked its 51^st birthday in August, Singaporean women can be justifiably proud of the country’s achievements.

In five decades, the country has made huge strides towards gender equality, to becoming the top Asian country for gender equality: According to the United Nations Human Development Report 2014, Singapore ranks 13^th out of 155 countries on the gender inequality index.¹ With among the lowest rates of maternal mortality in the world, Singapore is also considered to be the best place in Asia to be a mother.²

It is therefore not surprising that when participants at a policy conference in 2014 were asked to vote on one area in which the social differences had narrowed the most in the past 50 years in Singapore, the majority chose gender over race, religion, class, or income. As Aline Wong, former Minister of State for Health and Education, rightly observes, “Indeed, the statistics show women have now achieved almost parity with men in most areas of activity, and even surpassed them in some areas.” One such area is education: Singaporean women are increasingly likely to be better educated than men, with female graduates now outnumbering male graduates from university.⁴

The foundation for gender equality was laid from the very beginning of Singapore’s history. The principle of equality is entrenched in Article 12 of the Constitution, which states that all persons are equal under the law. The Women’s Charter was passed even before independence in 1961 to protect and advance the rights of women and girls.

In general, Singaporean women had fewer battles to fight than many of their counterparts around the world. For instance, Singaporean women already had the right to vote when the country became independent in 1965. Compare this with Switzerland, where women were only granted the right to vote in 1971.

Over the next fifty years, further measures towards greater gender equality were introduced – including, among others, equal medical benefits for male and female civil servants, the removal of the quota on female students in medical school, higher levels of maternity leave, greater childcare facilities, the introduction of paternity leave, legal protection against harassment both within and outside the workplace, legal prohibition of  the trafficking of women, and increased measures to reduce violence against women.

“Divine Discontent”: Constantly Striving To Do Better 

Singapore’s progress so far is commendable. But, as Prime Minister Lee remarked in his National Day Rally Speech on 21 August 2016, “. . . what I would like to have is that we [Singaporeans] be blessed with a ‘divine discontent’ – always not quite satisfied with what we have, always driven to do better.”⁵

When it comes to gender equality, there are still a few areas where Singapore can aspire to do better.  Most widely talked about is the need to increase women’s representation in leadership, particularly on boards. According to the Diversity Action Committee Report, as of the end of  2015, only 9.5 percent of SGX listed companies had women on Boards.⁶ This is an improvement on recent years, but as Madam Halimah Yacob, Speaker of Parliament, stated, the average annual growth rate of 0.5 percent is not enough.⁷ Moreover, Singapore lags in comparison to countries in the region such as Indonesia (11.6 percent) and China (13.2 percent), as well as globally compared to other developed countries like Australia (16.5 percent), Germany (21.3 percent), and the UK (21.9 percent).

But to see more women in leadership, the first step would be to make sure that more women enter and remain in the workforce. The number of women entering the labour force has been steadily increasing in the past decade – the female labour force participation rate has increased from 54.3 percent in 2006 to 60.4 percent in 2015.⁸ Even so, there are still fewer women in the labour force compared to men.

The main problem is that women don’t stay in the workforce for long. While both men and women enter the labour force in roughly equal numbers in their 20s, there is a significant drop-off of women in their 30s. Why does this happen? According to the 2015 Singapore Labour Force Survey, the main reason why women are not in the workforce is because of family responsibilities (housework, childcare, care-giving to families/relatives).

When women don’t work, this can lead to financial problems later in life. While Singaporean women are living longer than ever before, they have less financial security than men. Since Singapore’s mandatory old-age savings scheme, the Central Provident Fund (CPF), is primarily funded by both employer and employee contributions, women who are homemakers and not employed tend to be disadvantaged. As a consequence, women’s average total CPF balances ($68,000) remain significantly lower than men’s ($78,000), and the gap widens for older age groups.⁹ As healthcare costs in Singapore are rising faster than general inflation rates, the question on how the country will finance the costs of care for these older women will be an issue of concern.

What Next? 

To address these gaps, the first step would be to get more women to enter, but more importantly to stay in, the workforce.  The government has already initiated several measures to enable women to balance their work and family responsibilities through flexi-work schemes, and extended maternity and paternity leave. These initiatives are complemented by companies who are increasingly focusing on retaining their female workers with a variety of schemes. Several companies are also actively recruiting women who had left the workforce to have children or to take care of family/relatives, and are looking to rejoin the workforce at a later age.  The next challenge is to ensure that these women become future leaders, without compromising on Singapore’ s guiding principles of meritocracy and equal opportunities. If Singapore can do this, it will benefit everyone. Bringing more women back into the workforce is not just good for gender equality; it will help reduce Singapore’s growing manpower constraints and improve labour productivity.

This year’s National Day focused on how Singaporeans can work to build the Singapore of tomorrow. As Singaporeans plan their future, they would do well to remind themselves of Minister Grace Fu’s call in a speech to the PAP Women’s Wing in 2015: “Let us continue to forge the path forward to maximise opportunities for women, ensure their perspectives are heard, and leverage their unique talents to build an even better Singapore.”¹⁰