Encouraging women to be role models in business and society

Mr Thomas Chua, President of SCCCI

Ms Quek Soo Boon, Chairperson of the Career Women's Group

Excellencies,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. Good evening. I am happy to be here to mark International Women's Day with the SCCCI's Career Women's Group. The annual International Women's Day programme gets bigger in scale each year. I also understand that we have many women leaders from Thailand, Indonesia and China here with us today. I look forward to hearing from you later. The growing scale of this event also tells me that we all want to see more done, to recognise and support the contributions of women to our society and the economy. I am glad that SCCCI-CWG is facilitating such discussions.

2. The formation of the SCCCI Career Women's Group in 1994 reflects the recognition for the growing influence of women. Then-SCCCI President, the late Mr Kwek Leng Joo, encouraged the formation of the group to acknowledge the contributions of women in business and society.  This marked the turning point in SCCCI which was then only represented by men at that time.

3. Since then, women in SCCCI have also made headway, rising to the Council level. Where there were none before, today we have four distinguished ladies who are among the 56 SCCCI Council Members. But clearly, there's room for more women at the top and we will need your support to inspire others to similarly commit themselves to represent the views of women. I believe that women can do more on an even larger scale beyond the SCCCI and the CWG to tackle the challenges ahead.

4. While forums and women's groups like those here provide avenues for women to network, as individuals, we can play a role too. Each of us is the best advocate in our own private networks and communities, to champion a more gender-equal society.  Each of us is a leader in our respective field. We can show other women how it can be done too. We can each tell our friends and families too that everyone must step up to achieve a greater role for women in society. It's not just the mother, wife, daughter or sister, who needs to break stereotypes. The men – father, husband, brother, or son – can play their part too in enabling women to contribute more towards labour and economic growth and societal well-being.

5. In Singapore, we are facing a demographic challenge as our citizen population is ageing rapidly. With a longer life expectancy and low birth rate, we are facing imminent demographic, economic and manpower issues. So, this is a matter of some urgency and importance, not just for the women but every one of us. The numbers speak for themselves. The number of citizens retiring is about 175,000 or so and the number that's entering the workplace is about 250,000 or so. So if you are a businessman you'd say I actually have a growing workforce because the number that is entering is actually higher than the number exiting. Because of how this age profile is moving, by 2030, the number that is exiting will be about 260,000 and the number that is entering is about 171,000. So if you are running a business that will tell you that in about 10 years' time you'll have a problem with workforce. And more importantly, if you look deeper into the numbers, you'll know that the workers that are leaving the workplace are those that are aged 65 or so. Their education profile, their skillsets will be different from those that are entering – two generations of workers, completely different education, exposure and aspirations. How companies and employers will deal with these demographic shifts, how you attract jobs that will appeal to the younger workforce is critical – it's of utmost importance. It's not just a number but it's a quality issue – quality of jobs, nature of jobs. So that's why the Government is really serious about economic restructuring, about job restructuring, about skills upgrading. Because the nature of jobs, which ties in to how businesses run its work, will have to be restructured in order to meet the needs in terms of expectations and skillsets. So if we have been running the same processes for the last 20, 30 years, then there is a very high chance that that kind of work is not going to be very appealing to the ones joining the workforce. So the other consideration for the Government is how we can get more people into the workplace because for every citizen exiting the workplace, we have only about 0.7 who is entering the workplace. So a higher productivity level is required in order to still meet the needs of businesses. So women's participation in the workforce is not just for gender equality. It is for Singapore's economic future.

6. It's therefore a priority that we find ways to raise women's labour force participation rates. Women can be the next engine of growth. The labour force participation rate for females aged 15 and above has risen steadily across the years since our independence to about 60 per cent today. So, while we have seen some progress, there's more we can do to move the needle further. And a mind-set change is needed not just among women but across the whole of society.  We want strong labour force participation from women to be a social norm.

7. I therefore urge women in leadership to be a role model and change agent in business and society. As a role model, you can encourage others to follow your footsteps through sharing and coaching other women. Within your organisation, you can be an advocate for a more women-friendly work environment in the area of recruitment. For example, as part of hiring and talent identification, HR policies should cater for women who may want to spend time early on in their careers to focus on the family. There is also a need to develop policies that do not disadvantage the hiring of back-to-work mums nor prevent them from entering a company leadership programme. These are some structural issues that are either preventing women from having a family or having children or preventing them from reaching their potential because of age-related criteria that puts them at a disadvantage because of the needs to have kids and so on. We can also influence more companies to institute women-friendly HR practices – part-time work, flexi-work, they are all very helpful and technology now enables us to do that more efficiently than before. So it can be done. We just need to apply our minds and focus on this issue. 

8. At the societal level, we can all send a strong signal to women that we need to take charge of our careers too. This includes picking a programme or course to enrol in, and to upgrade our skills. The SkillsFuture movement presents opportunities for women to learn a new skill and provides each working adult with $500 in SkillsFuture credit, to help everyone along. This is a very significant change. This is the first time that the Government has put training dollars in the hands of individuals. In the past, the grants and training schemes are in the hands of employers. Companies have to sponsor, apply for grants and get subsidies for their workers. Companies are looking at their own needs and are prepared to sponsor skills training only when they are relevant to the company or related sectors. The second shortcoming is the fact that it doesn't cover people who are not working like women who have stayed home. So SkillsFuture actually changes the whole dynamics. It puts the training dollars in the hands of the individual. And this is where I would like to urge many of you who are running businesses to re-think about this carefully because if the training dollars are now in the hands of the individual, in a way, your employees can now decide the kind of training they want to be in. So as a progressive company, I think training and development of all your employees will be paramount. You have to be there or you will be losing out because your employees will look out for courses that you are not prepared to train and spend on and they have a choice – they may just walk with their money. I hope this will allow more women to pick up new skills or deepen their existing know-how. This will help more women re-join the workforce, or move up the ranks in their current field or even in an alternative field.

9. While the importance of keeping women in the workplace cannot be over-emphasised, we also must not forget the importance of starting a family and having children. Men and women need to play equal more roles at home. It is about “levelling the playing field” so that the responsibility of raising a child falls more evenly on both men and women, on both husband and wife. It is about supporting our loved ones – our wives, daughters, nieces, and friends – to be able to fulfil their career aspirations while enjoying quality family life. Hopefully, this mindset will influence our children that gender equality is the way forward for their generation as well, that women need a society that supports a family and a career, not just one or the other. This is not a women's issue but an economic competitive issue that will affect our labour force. There is more room for growth and women can contribute towards this.

10. In closing, I just like to thank Ms Quek Soo Boon and her team for allowing me the chance to speak to you and for leading the CWG since 2011. I like the core values that you introduced 德 (virtue), 智(wisdom),群(fellowship) and 美(grace) to the group. These core values have guided the work of the CWG steadily over the past few years and will serve us well in the years to come. I'd like to thank all of you for listening to me attentively. I wish you a very meaningful and happy evening. Thank you and happy International Women's Day.