Women's causes: Rekindling the fire
Singapore will join the world in celebrating the 100th International Women's Day on Tuesday. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the Women's Charter. Six women activists reflect on yesterday's battles and discuss tomorrow's challenges.
By Cassandra Chew (with thanks to Straits Times Fri 4 March 2011)
WHEN Dr Aline Wong was first elected to Parliament in 1984, it quickly became clear to her that she was entering a man's world.
Making her maiden appearance in the chamber that is now Old Parliament House, she discovered that it was not designed for women.
The only toilet for women was located at the back of the building and was difficult to access. So a men's washroom on the ground floor had to be instantly converted into one for women.
'The new ladies' washroom was nicely done up, airy though sparse, with a sofa in a corner for resting, and a tall mirror on the wall opposite it,' recalls Dr Wong, 69, former Senior Minister of State for Education who retired from politics in 2001.
She was then one of three women MPs to be elected after 14 years of an all-male Parliament.
'We were quite a novelty then,' says Dr Wong, referring to herself, former cardiologist Dixie Tan, and Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon.
Today, 27 years later, women make up almost a quarter of all MPs in Parliament. They comprise 17 elected MPs, four Nominated MPs and one Non-Constituency MP - representing the largest assembly of women in the House so far.
Admittedly, the figure is still some way off from the 30 to 35 per cent target set by the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
But it is undoubtedly a great leap forward compared to where the women's movement was in the early days of the Republic.
In the 1950s, Singapore was a male-dominated society: In 1957, only 21.6 per cent of the women were working. In the universities, the proportion of women hovered around 20 per cent in 1955 and 1956. Today, 56.5 per cent of women are working, and there is an almost equal representation among men and women in the universities.
The numbers show how far women have progressed in terms of education, and economic and public life, but numbers alone fail to tell the stories of the pioneering women who dared to speak up against the status quo.
The landmark law
IN HER first and only political broadcast during the 1959 general election, the late Mrs Lee Kuan Yew championed the rights of women on behalf of the People's Action Party (PAP).
Speaking on radio under her maiden name, Madam Kwa Geok Choo made the party pledge to protect women and children by abolishing polygamy, and to have equal pay for equal work among men and women. It was a stirring cause that had been taken up earlier by women's rights advocates Shirin Fozdar and Linda Chen.
That year, the PAP won a landslide victory and came into power with four women candidates elected to the Legislative Assembly. The party delivered on its promise, and in 1961, the Women's Charter became law.
Besides making polygamy illegal for non-Muslims, the law allowed married women to keep their maiden name and own property, among other breakthroughs. The landmark legislation, widely seen as the most significant milestone for Singapore women, gave women equal legal rights as men, putting them ahead of their Western peers.
'The ruling party was really gung-ho about women's rights and in a lot of ways, we were really advanced,' says Ms Zaibun Siraj, 63, a long-time feminist.
Then in 1962, the Government went a step further to announce equal pay for equal work for men and women in the Civil Service. Until then, women were paid only 80 per cent of men's salaries.
The PAP had given a big lift to the women's cause but the euphoria did not last. Although the chamber continued to have female representation, the women's movement soon lost steam as the ruling party turned its attention to economic development and nation-building.
By 1970, women MPs had disappeared from Parliament altogether and the PAP made no effort to scout for and field women candidates.
The famine years
FOR 14 years - from 1970 to 1984 - Parliament experienced what Labour MP Halimah Yacob once described as a period of famine, without a single woman MP in the House.
It was during this time that the Government introduced a series of policies that upset women, who found them to be patriarchal and unfair.
There was the Great Marriage Debate when then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew expressed fears that a decline in the birth rate among the well-educated would result in a 'thinning of the gene pool' and national economic disaster.
Matchmaking services were set up to bring graduates together, and incentives given to graduate women who married early and had children early.
The Government gave $10,000 to less-educated, low-income mothers under the age of 30 if they agreed to sterilisation after their first or second child.
Many women protested that the Government had unfairly singled them out as the cause of the fertility decline and that the policies devalued the contributions of less-educated women as wives, mothers and workers. Immigration policies also favoured men, not women, as citizens.
But what really fired up women activists like sociologist Vivienne Wee, 59, were policies by the Ministry of Education (MOE) that seemed to chip away at the principle of gender equality established in the Women's Charter.
In 1979, the ministry introduced quotas for women entering medical school. In 1984, it barred girls from technical studies and insisted that they take home economics classes.
Dr Wee recalls: 'Men and women petitioned to MOE because suddenly, women were deprived of education because of their gender. It got us worried that the gains from 1961 were being eroded.'
What struck the women as ironical was that just a few years earlier, then-PM Lee Kuan Yew had said at the NTUC International Women's Year Seminar in 1975 that 'societies which do not educate and use half their potential because they are women are those which will be worse-off'.
He added: 'Those that do and face up to the problem of new social and family relationships to help working wives to bring up the next generation are those most likely to provide better lives for their people.'
Call to action
DETERMINED to hold the politicians to their word, Dr Wee and Ms Zaibun held a conference - Women's Choices, Women's Lives - in conjunction with International Women's Day in 1984.
It was during this conference of 'several hundred women' that a call to action was made to eliminate the unfairness that these women saw. The following year, women's advocacy group Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) was born.
The group began lobbying against the medical quota, sexist advertising campaigns and violence against women. It proposed recommendations to combat the falling birth rate, such as better childcare infrastructure and work-life balance for families.
In 1987, Aware held a forum against polygamy after PM Lee suggested that Singapore might have erred in abolishing polygamy.
Slowly but surely, the voices of women began to be heard, both inside and outside Parliament House, and changes began to unfold.
The medical quota was lifted, citizenship rules were amended, and boys began to take home economics classes too.
In 2009, the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO), the umbrella body for women's groups, made recommendations to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to strengthen the enforcement of maintenance orders under the Women's Charter. These changes were passed in January this year.
Dr Wong, who represents Singapore on the Asean Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, says: 'I am convinced that without the push from women MPs, trade unionists and women's groups, things would not have improved so much within the last two-and-a-half decades were they left to natural process.'
Taking stock
SO JUST how far have women progressed?
Tomorrow, Aware will reprise its founding conference to take stock of how far women have come.
To celebrate International Women's Day, SCWO will present a documentary on women's progress over the last 100 years at its dinner party next Wednesday.
But while much has been done to reduce gender discrimination in government policies, women activists tell Insight that several obstacles to gender equality remain.
First: Raising children is not seen as the responsibility of both parents', but of the mother's.
Second: There is a glaring shortage of women in top political posts, senior management and on the boards of directors.
Although 51 per cent of women in the workforce are professionals, managers or technicians, only 5.6 per cent of board members on publicly listed firms are women.
Women in the Civil Service have fared slightly better, with six women permanent secretaries out of a total of 22, while about 17 per cent of judges in the Supreme Court are women.
On their part, says Mrs Yu-Foo, women can help shift society's mindset regarding gender roles by starting in their own homes, by ensuring that old stereotypes are not perpetuated.
She urges women to 'take charge of their own lives and not allow the system to create a glass ceiling'.
Meanwhile, calls have been made for more flexible work arrangements and paternity leave, as well as for the removal of hurdles that prevent women from being identified, groomed and selected for top roles.
Boards with a balance of men and women perform better, argues Mrs Laura Hwang, president of SCWO, which is starting an initiative to encourage this.
But for their voices to be heard and their views acted upon, the women's groups may have to resort to the loudhailer once again.
As founding Aware member Kanwaljit Soin, 69, says: 'Just the fact that we have an organisation called Aware to channel women's voices is an achievement. If the MPs do not raise women's issues in Parliament, Aware is going to say it.'
casschew@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times
Mar 4, 2011
It all started with Shirin Fozdar
· 1952: Singapore's first feminist, Mrs Shirin Fozdar, initiates the setting up of the Singapore Council of Women to lobby against polygamy.
· 1956: Women's rights advocate Linda Chen Mong Hock forms the Singapore Women's Federation calling for the abolition of polygamy, equal pay for equal work for men and women, and the protection of women and children.
· 1959: The People's Action Party, which campaigns for women's welfare, assumes power. Four women candidates are elected to the Legislative Assembly - Madam Chan Choy Siong, Madam Hoe Puay Choo, Ms Fung Yin Ching and Madam Sahorah Ahmat. In the opposition is Mrs Seow Peck Leng from the Singapore People's Alliance.
· 1961: The Legislative Assembly passes the Women's Charter, which outlaws polygamy for non-Muslims. Among several breakthroughs, it ensures that women retain their property and legal rights after marriage.
· 1962: The Government announces equal pay for equal work for men and women in the Civil Service. Until then, women were paid only 80 per cent of men's salaries.
· 1970-1984: No women MPs in Parliament.
· 1974: A group of women starts the Singapore Association of Women Lawyers to provide legal protection for women and children.
· 1980: The Singapore Council of Women's Organisations, the umbrella body for all women's groups here, is founded to seek economic independence for women. Its founding members include Mrs Julie Tan and Dr Anamah Tan.
· 1984: Three women MPs - Dr Aline Wong, Dr Dixie Tan and Mrs Yu-Foo Yu Shoon - are elected to Parliament. The proportion of women in the chamber has since grown to about a quarter of all MPs today.
· 1985: The Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) is founded to advocate gender equality. It is formed in response to a slew of government policies seen as patriarchal and unfair to women.
· 1989: Dr Aline Wong sets up the PAP Women's Wing to groom female leaders in politics.
· 1991: Appointed Acting Minister of Community Development, Dr Seet Ai Mee becomes the highest-ranking woman in politics. But she loses her parliamentary seat in the same year.
· 1992: Dr Kanwaljit Soin, then-president of Aware, is the first female Nominated MP (NMP). Two former Aware presidents also become NMPs later: Ms Claire Chiang in 1997 and Ms Braema Mathi in 2001.
· 1995: Singapore signs the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Dr Soin tables the Family Violence Bill, which is not passed. However, the Government takes up her suggestions to enhance protection for victims of domestic violence in its review of the Women's Charter the following year.
· 1998: The Association of Women Doctors is formed to lobby against the one-third quota on women entering medical school at the National University of Singapore.
· 1999: Women are allowed to sponsor their foreign spouses for citizenship.
· 2003: After 24 years, the Government lifts the gender quota for medical school.
· 2004: Singaporean women married to foreigners gain the right to pass on their Singapore citizenship to their children born abroad. Previously, only male Singaporeans could do so.
· 2005: Women civil servants get medical benefits for their dependants. Before, only men enjoyed this benefit.
· 2009: Appointed Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua is the first woman to be a Cabinet minister.
· 2010: Female taxpayers can claim spouse relief of $2,000. This was previously available only to men as wife relief.
· 2011: Government amends the Women's Charter to strengthen enforcement of maintenance orders, and to mitigate the impact of divorce.
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