[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/gender-equality-it-is-about-time\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/gender-equality-it-is-about-time\/","headline":"Gender Equality: It is about time","name":"Gender Equality: It is about time","description":"Gender equality does not mean that women and men need to become the same or given the same treatment, especially at the workplace. What it means is that women\u2019s and men\u2019s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Gender parity will also mean the fairness of treatment […]","datePublished":"2022-03-23","dateModified":"2022-03-25","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/editor1\/#Person","name":"Judith Tan","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/editor1\/","identifier":57,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Judith-Tan-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Judith-Tan-100x100.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Source-video-snip_Featured-Image.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Source-video-snip_Featured-Image.jpg","height":900,"width":1600},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/gender-equality-it-is-about-time\/","commentCount":"2","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/gender-equality-it-is-about-time\/#Comment1","dateCreated":"2026-07-09 05:19:11","description":"Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"binance anm\"alningsbonus","url":"https:\/\/accounts.binance.bh\/register\/person?ref=IHJUI7TF"}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/gender-equality-it-is-about-time\/#Comment2","dateCreated":"2026-04-13 08:57:43","description":"Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks! https:\/\/www.binance.info\/sl\/register?ref=GQ1JXNRE","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"registro de Binance","url":"https:\/\/accounts.binance.info\/es\/register?ref=RQUR4BEO"}}],"about":["Community","Local","Sex & Gender","Singapore"],"wordCount":2558,"keywords":["1880","aware","Corinna Lim","crisis","Duncan Hewett","energy costs","inflation","oil prices","singaporeans","SR Nathan fellow","tax","war","White Paper"],"articleBody":"Gender equality does not mean that women and men need to become the same or given the same treatment, especially at the workplace. What it means is that women\u2019s and men\u2019s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.Gender parity will also mean the fairness of treatment for both women and men according to their respective talent, knowledge, experience and even needs. This includes equal treatment or treatment that is different but which takes into account their performance, rewards and opportunities.Gender equality does not mean women and men need to be the same or given the same treatment. (Photo source: Canva)These were the messages during a closed door session on 17 March in 1880, a private club born out of an idea that conversations can and will make the world a better place.Titled \u201cGender Equality: The Time Has Come\u201d and moderated by CEO of 1880 and AWARE’s 2nd Vice-President Jean Low, the session was also part of the partnerships the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) has during the International Women\u2019s Month in March 2022. The theme for this year is #BreakTheBias.Under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to transform the world, gender equality is at number five. While 26 of the 195 countries in the world (13 per cent) are led by women, and 16 per cent on the board of top 500 multinational corporations (MNCs) are women, the global gender gap is not expected to close for another 136 years, says the World Economic Forum.\u00a0But champion for the representation of women in business and technology and author of Accelerating Women Duncan Hewett disagreed, saying that there will be \u201csignificant changes in the next 10 years\u201d.\u201cAsia will get there before that because there is a talent shortage and there is a need and that helps. I\u2019m also seeing leading groups, an MD with 600 people moving six and a half per cent a year. \u2026 Six and a half percent from 25 to 50, that\u2019s in your working lifetime, that\u2019s in your two career steps. I\u2019m actually bullish because we are at that point where we are starting to move,\u201d the senior vice president and general manager for VMware\u2019s business in Asia Pacific & Japan said.Author Duncan Hewitt says the greatest source of innovation in any organisation is its people, and one of the highest contributors to achieving sustained performance comes from women.\u00a0 (Photo source: TheHomeGround Asia)Mr Hewett founded VMinclusion Taara, which \u201cgives away free enablers to empower and help women in India return to work\u201d. The free programme is open to female graduates without a job for over six months and aims to bring back women who took mid-career breaks for various reasons.Mr Hewett said in India’s IT sector, nearly 50 percent of women drop out of the active workforce after about five to eight years and do not return to work and that increasing women’s participation in the labour force there is essential for the growth of the country’s IT industry by ensuring diversity of skills, thoughts and perspectives.\u201cAnd we\u2019ve just crossed 4,000 women back into the IT workforce in India and we have 16,000 women in the programme and it\u2019s all about confidence. That is a life-changing experience and we are just about to launch (it) in Japan and the target that we have given the team is 100,000 in Asia over the next three years,\u201d he said, adding that the 4,000 women attained jobs in 1,100 organisations as a result of the programme.Mr Hewett added if women are helped back into the workforce, it could add US$27 trillion to the Indian economy.\u00a0According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 129 million girls worldwide are out of school, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) says across their lifetime about 736 million or 1 in 3 women are subjected to physical or sexual violence. This number has remained largely unchanged over the past decade.The other speaker, executive director of AWARE Corinna Lim, said Singapore has actually solved the education problem. \u201cWe have had more women graduating from universities in the last 10 years \u2026 and that\u2019s why we can see an acceleration of gender equality as well in the companies and in general,\u201d she says. But she says Singapore is enlightened \u201cin so far as economics is concerned\u201d because the labour and talent of every single person counts.While everyone has equal education and women were encouraged to work, they did not get the top jobs in the 1960s and 1970s. \u201c(The Singapore government) is by no means a feminist government and when it came to \u2026 who is looking after the children \u2026 the women really need to do the jobs that allow them to be very active mothers,\u201d Ms Lim said.\u00a0\u201cIt has to be a fundamental value in society otherwise if it has to do with economics or population management that we get this outcome of gender equality it\u2019s very shaky. At any time you might lose it,\u201d she added.Early Singapore more feminist then Singapore of todayIn the early 1960s, there were feminists in both the government and civil society. \u201cThose years were good. We had the Women’s Charter passed during that time. And then we had a barren period \u2013 I called that period \u2018Period of no women\u2019 because there were no women at all in Parliament or in civil society and during those 10 years \u2026 we had the worst policies,\u201d Ms Lim said, citing the example of the 30 per cent quota on female medical students because the then minister said they kept dropping out to get married and medicine was so expensive as a degree for the government to subsidise.\u201cWe had this policy and others come out when there were no civil society groups that were fighting and holding the fort. So it is actually really important, always, to have women in policy making and women in civil society,\u201d she added.\u00a0The number of women plays an important role in success but they still get pushed outIn the past several years, research has shown that the increased number of women in leadership is helping businesses to thrive in unprecedented ways. A 2021 study published by the University of California, Davis revealed that big California companies with at least some women at the top performed considerably better than ones with mostly male boards and executives.Conducted annually, the study surveys the 400 largest public companies headquartered in California regarding the gender diversity of their C-suites and boardrooms \u201cto drive awareness among corporations, business leaders and policy makers to take meaningful action toward greater female representation.\u201dMs Lim said AWARE recommends \u201cat least 25 per cent or 30 per cent in order to hit critical mass where women don\u2019t feel alone, where they feel braver to be themselves and to speak up\u201d. \u201cIf you are one woman in a room of 10, it is going to be difficult and then you start being like the boys. You start being a patriarchal woman,\u201d she said.Executive director of AWARE Corinna Lim says at least 25 per cent or 30 per cent in order to hit critical mass where women don\u2019t feel alone, where they feel braver to be themselves and to speak up. (Photo source: TODAY)Agreeing, Mr Hewett said, \u201cMy worst performing country at the start of last year was 9 per cent women and we went to 15 per cent by the end of the year and it is already at 18 (per cent) now. The best one is running at 38 per cent women and this is with effort. Last year, I moved 2.2 per cent on average across 3,500 (employees. \u2026 and I actually do quarterly reviews of the regions. We start with the number, how many have you hired, promoted and how many have you attritted. So if the environment\u2019s wrong, it\u2019s like a leaking bucket. You hire 33 per cent and 38 per cent leave.\u201d\u00a0\u201cIf women were in the workforce at the same rate as men in Singapore, there would be 225,000 more women in the workforce. We have about a million women in the workforce now, so that is 25 per cent more women in a very tight labour market \u2026 That\u2019s why the government is pushing gender equality as well and not being too reliant on foreign talent and labour,\u201d Ms Lim said.Equal does not mean identicalYet Singapore\u2019s gender pay gap remains at 16 per cent, which Ms Lim said is \u201cnot bad compared to some other countries and because there are some women such as the foreign domestic workers at home doing caregiving work\u201d. \u201cThe sad part about the 16 per cent difference is that it has been 16 per cent for 20 years despite education and all that,\u201d she said, adding that the 16 per cent comes from the difference in median pay of both men and women, not counting the 225,000 women who are not working.To ensure this does not happen at his company, Mr Hewett says he goes through the pay of its 3,500 employees and would \u201cmanually change pay so that managers learn\u201d and the gap has improved every year.There are male dominated and female dominated industries. So vertically you also have segregations and care jobs where a lot of the women are, they pay a lot less and there are some jobs where there are many men and they pay a lot more and this is where the great difference is,\u201d Ms Lim said.\u00a0She also identified three areas which contributed to this berth. For one, caregiving is a woman\u2019s job.\u201cIn our minds, caregiving is still a woman\u2019s job. In our policies, in our laws, it is very much a woman\u2019s job. These ideas and norms are actually entrenched in policies and in practices. This is why women have four months maternity leave and men two weeks of paternity (leave) \u2026 and that is why the 16 per cent gap is the way it is,\u201d she said.Ms Lim said the second area is that there are not enough men who see this as their problem and the \u201cnow popular idea of male allyship and that we need it to crack the problem of gender equality\u201d.\u00a0Tackling unconscious biasesBut Mr Hewett does not use the term at all in his dealing with women in the workplace.\u00a0\u201cThe issue around male allyship is that you have people who are collecting badges to say \u2018I\u2019m a male ally\u2019 for a career step. They are not actually and genuinely being engaging. It is actually quite difficult to create the right environment,\u201d he said.\u201cWe all have our sets of biases and part of it is our reward system, particularly in corporate which is around what you are seen to be doing, not what you actually do. \u2026 The ones who are looking for career-hopping, two years \u2018I just need to be seen doing this\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s the danger. We have to get it out of the leadership team because that is actually what is hurting us. We are one step forward and two steps back,\u201d he said, adding that it is about running an inclusive environment that is about everyone\u2019s value that they bring.\u201cThe data is there. Diverse teams consistently outperform every other team. I have had six years in a row of over 10 per cent growth \u2013 double digit growth and I know it came from having diverse teams and the tipping point of 25 per cent works. It moves from feeling like a minority to having people around you who are like you,\u2019 Mr Hewett said.Taking the idea of clustering from Mr Hewett\u2019s book \u201cAccelerating Women: The Key to Growth and Innovation\u201d, Ms Lim said if there were not enough women, putting women in different teams \u201creally does not work so well\u201d. \u201cIt is better to put them all in one team so that they have the 25 per cent. They will do better. They will thrive more,\u201d she said.\u00a0And in his book, Mr Hewett wrote, \u201cTreating men and women the same is not treating them equally.\u201d \u201cI get it that I hired the best person for the job but I hear it time and time again that the best person for the job would have the best resume with 15 years of experience. This automatically has a bias in it that excludes every woman who has gone off to have a baby. You end up with this systemic bias in the way things work,\u201d he told the room of 30 people.Citing the example of a coach of a team, he said, \u201cMy goal is not treating everyone the same. My goal as a leader is to get the best out of you and you, which means I have to give you different things. If I was going to treat all of you the same, the team is going to perform suboptimally. No coach in any high performing team has ever treated everyone the same. So why are business leaders, government leaders talking about treating everyone the same?,\u201d he asked.A progressive Singapore Government, gender equality moving into the mainstreamWith education and more women in the work space, Ms Lim says she sees this as the next leveller. \u201cCorporate Singapore is now trying to crack a problem \u2013 the talent war. They want more women to be attracted and stay in the company and they are asking themselves about the unconscious biases and \u2026 looking at the norms like caregiving and why women are leaving,\u201d she said.She added that the Singapore government has also become increasingly progressive \u201cto the point that gender equality has become mainstream\u201d. It announced in 2020 that it is embarking on a review of women\u2019s issues in a move towards greater gender equality leading to a White Paper. Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said then that achieving gender equality requires a \u201cdeep mindset change\u201d as well as changes to Singapore’s cultural value system.That was also the reason why Ms Lim was appointed as the eighth S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore at the Institute of Policy Studies in 2021.\u00a0Appointed the 8th SR Nathan fellow in 2021, AWARE Executive Director Corinna Lim’s three IPS-Nathan Lectures in 2021 has been compiled in a book. (Photo source: TheHomeGround Asia)She said that the year-long consultation on the topic made a difference because women\u2019s issues became top of mind, creating \u201ca lot more chatter on this whole thing and now they will have their White Paper coming out in the next three months saying that Singapore is going to do this to promote gender equality\u201d.\u00a0\u201cThere is momentum in companies, there is momentum in the government and AWARE\u2019s strategy is to ride on this so as many community engagement thinks it\u2019s possible. The government has got the memo. They think gender equality is important and it\u2019s going to become a fundamental value and we are going to continue to push. But I think engaging the community is a very important strategy at this time,\u201d she said.Should you wish to purchase the books, click here for Gender Equality – The Time Has Come by Corinna Lim and here for Accelerating Women: The Key to Growth & Innovation by Duncan Hewett.Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia’s\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram, and get the latest updates via\u00a0Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Gender Equality: It is about time","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/gender-equality-it-is-about-time\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]