[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: Women in our society are like pieces of meat put on the table for men to slice, declared Chan Choy Siong in a fiery speech to the Legislative Assembly in April 1960.
Choy Siong, a member of Delta’s Popular Action Party (PAP) and a passionate advocate for women’s rights, spoke in support of the Women’s Charter Bill.
He said it would bring about “a revolutionary change in society”, as men could no longer “take women as a commodity.”
The bill, which became law in 1961, was in fact remarkably progressive for the time. It gave women and men the same situation in marriage and prohibited polygamy for non-Muslims.
The five PAP candidates for the 1959 elections. From left to right: Oh Su Chen, Che Sahorah binte Ahmat, Chan Choy Siong, Ho Puay Choo and Fung Yin Ching. (Photo: Voices and Choices: The Women’s Movement in Singapore. Used with permission from the Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations)
FIGHT AGAINST POLYGAMY AND MUCH MORE IN THE 50S
This ban on polygamy was why another pioneering feminist, Shirin Fozdar, campaigned relentlessly during the 1950s.
Shirin, who began giving speeches on women’s rights when she was a schoolgirl in India, came to Singapore in 1950 with her husband to spread the Bahá’í faith. She soon discovered that many of the men she and her husband met at social events were not there, as she had assumed, with his only wife, but with his second, third, or fourth wife.
Horrified that polygamy was so widespread and that women and children had so little legal protection, Shirin brought together some of the leading women in Singapore and formed the Singapore Council of Women (SCW).
Shirin and SCW wrote letters, gave talks, and met with political and community leaders during the 1950s.
Shirin Fozdar gave public speeches on women’s and social issues even as a student in India. (Photo: Facebook / Connexion.sg)
After the General Legislative Assembly elections of 1955, which were Singapore’s first political elections and in which David Marshall of the Labor Front became Chief Minister, Shirin wrote an open and angry letter to Mr. Marshall.
“Before the elections, the Labor Front and the PAP promised to work for the uplift of the homeless and see that justice and equality prevail. The women of this country were praying for the election of brave and just men, who would eliminate the inequalities between the sexes in this country, ”she said.
But “political rivalry and immature political skill have thrown this country into confusion and unrest,” Shirin said.
“How much better would it be if instead of making the Legislative Assembly a stage for politicians to indulge in verbal fights, elected representatives unite on this important issue of eliminating injustices committed against women. This would be paying to a certain extent the debt of gratitude that each one owes to his mother, who turned out to be a woman. “
However, SCW’s open letter had little effect on politicians. Only during the campaign for the 1959 general elections did women’s rights appear, and the issue was raised only by the PAP.
Voting had become compulsory in 1959, and with women making up half the electorate, the PAP, then an opposition party, did its best to secure the female vote.
Her manifesto The Tasks Ahead spoke of monogamous marriage laws, women’s jobs, equal pay for equal work, caring for widows and orphans, and encouraging women to be active in politics.
Chan Choy Siong and others from the PAP Women’s League spoke enthusiastically at PAP rallies about how women should free themselves from being men’s toys.
Even Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of PAP leader Lee Kuan Yew, joined the fray.
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Mdm Kwa Geok Choo and their first son Lee Hsien Loong. (Photo: collection of Ms. Lee Kuan Yew, Facebook of Mr. Lee Hsien Loong
In her first and only political speech, Ms Lee defended equal pay for equal work, saying: “Our society is still based on the assumption that women are the social, political and economic inferiors of men. This myth has become the excuse for the exploitation of female labor ”.
Having convincingly won the 1959 elections, the PAP government set out to fulfill its promise to the women of Singapore and in 1960 introduced the Women’s Charter Bill.
At the final reading of the bill in Parliament in March 1961, Choy Siong declared that the law “would give the women’s movement a very flat and level road on which to travel.”
THEN THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT DISAPPEARED FOR A LONG TIME
The Women’s Charter was indeed “landmark legislation”, as the Minister of Law and Home Affairs, K Shanmugam, noted in his recent speech on women and gender equality, a speech that is likely to become another milestone in the women’s movement here.
READ: Review on women’s issues goes beyond the law, aims to ‘deeply root’ gender equality in society: Shanmugam
But the road for women has not been as flat and level as Choy Siong anticipated and as the rest of us would have liked.
The lively women’s movement of the 1950s all but disappeared in the 1960s. With the Women’s Charter in place and polygamy banned, the SCW had little else to campaign for.
Shirin moved to Thailand in 1961 to work with destitute women and girls. Without his encouraging presence, SCW’s membership dwindled and it was disbanded in 1971.
Meanwhile, the PAP’s interest in getting more women involved in politics also seemed to wane. Most of their MPs left when the Barisan Socialis faction split from the party, leaving only Choy Siong in Parliament.
Choy Siong, a passionate advocate for women’s rights. (Photo: Voices and Choices: The Women’s Movement in Singapore. Used with permission from the Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations)
When Choy Siong retired from politics in 1970, the House became a man’s business. It would remain without the benefit of women’s opinions and voices for 14 years, until the 1984 general elections. Opposition parties had some female candidates, but none were elected.
When the Government announced a quota on the number of women admitted to medical school in 1979, there was no woman in Parliament who could oppose this blatantly discriminatory measure.
There was no woman in the nation’s highest policymaking body who opposed statements like that of Health Minister Toh Chin Chye, who said it was difficult for a woman to be a good doctor because she “had to be a wife and mother also doing night work in public hospitals ”.
The quota, which meant that women could only account for a third of every medical student admission, would remain in effect until 2003. It was one of several discriminatory laws and policies that AWARE campaigned against for many years, with only a few rectified. 15 years ago.
READ: Comment: How do we raise children who will never hit women?
READ: Comment: This is what women really want in regards to gender equality
A “RIGHT ROLE”
The problem was that while the Women’s Charter was, at the time, a progressive law that equated women and men in marriage, it was not legislation that established gender equality as a core value for Singapore.
Polygamy was banished, but patriarchy persisted.
File photo of the House of Parliament. (Photo: Hani Amin)
It was evident in the all-male Parliament we had for 14 years, and in sexist statements like “girls should be girls” that emerged in the wake of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s controversial 1983 National Rally Day speech.
The late Mr. Lee’s comments sparked what became known as the Great Marriage Debate which led to a series of sexist, elitist and eugenicist comments and schemes designed for female graduates to marry and have many children.
Shortly after this speech, Minister of State for Education Tay Eng Soon called for girls’ schools to cater to “feminine” interests and activities so that girls grow up better prepared for their “natural and proper role in life” as wives and mothers. .
READ: Comment: What’s wrong with being a single woman?
READ: Comment: The burden of caring for elderly parents weighs more on unmarried daughters
The following year, it became compulsory for lower secondary girls to do home economics, which meant that they could not opt for technical studies.
Education and other policies have changed over the years, sometimes seriously affecting the options open to women (and men).
Although we have adopted as fundamental values, enshrined in our Constitution, non-discrimination on the basis of “religion, race, ancestry or place of birth”, we have not committed ourselves to the principle of gender equality.
GENDER EQUALITY AS A FUNDAMENTAL VALUE
AWARE was created 35 years ago because of this.
We believe that gender equality must be a fundamental value. We consider it vitally important to eliminate gender-based barriers that can and do limit people’s ability to explore and develop their full potential.
Women with reusable masks at Raffles Place. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
We have been able to contribute to the removal of some of these barriers, but the goal of a national commitment to the principle of gender equality has proven elusive.
Therefore, it was astonishing to hear, on a Sunday morning (September 20), Mr. Shanmugam argue a passionate case for precisely this. Amazing but encouraging and energizing.
Sixty years ago, Singapore took a step ahead of many countries, including those far more developed than us, when the Women’s Charter became law. Singapore is today among the most developed countries in the world.
We pride ourselves on appearing at or near the top in all kinds of global rankings and indices. It’s time to take pride in being a leader in gender equality.
Margaret Thomas is president of AWARE and a former journalist.
