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SINGAPORE: A review of women’s issues in Singapore will take a closer look at how gender equality may be more ingrained in Singaporean society, in order to address the roots of behavior that leads to sexual offenses, said the Minister of Law and Interior K Shanmugam. .
On CNA’s Heart of the Matter podcast released Thursday (September 24), Mr. Shanmugam was asked about controversies related to recent high-profile sex crime cases. He said that stricter laws and harsher penalties are only one side of the problem.
“I can change the laws and make them more rigid, I already did it with the approval of Parliament. But that’s just one aspect, there is something more fundamental. What if we really made boys and girls think differently about equality, accepting equality as a fundamental principle? “he said during the interview on Wednesday.
“I felt that there was space, and my colleagues in the cabinet felt that there was space, to try to generate a different spirit in society. So here we are talking about the soul, not just punishment.”
Shanmugam had announced on Sunday that the Singaporean government will make a comprehensive review of women’s issues, culminating in a White Paper in the first half of next year.
RESPECT FOR WOMEN AS A “FUNDAMENTAL VALUE”
There will be a series of commitments aimed at identifying and addressing issues related to women in Singapore. The State Minister for Social and Family Development, Sun Xueling, the State Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Low Yen Ling, and the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Rahayu Mahzam, will lead the review.
One of the things the three co-chairs will examine is how gender equality and respect for women can become more deeply ingrained as core values from young people, Shanmugam said on the Heart of the Matter podcast.
“If (gender equality) is more ingrained, my hope is that (potential offenders) are less inclined, or much more understanding of the consequences, and then they will not treat it as a joke or something to satisfy themselves, they will consider with more careful that they should not (commit the crime) ”, he said.
READ: Singapore to embark on a review of women’s issues in a movement towards greater gender equality, leading to the White Paper next year
When asked if recent cases of crimes against women suggest deeper and more fundamental problems, Shanmugan replied: “I would not be so pessimistic.” He said statistics show that there are fewer crimes against women in Singapore than in most other places, and the laws against such crimes are strict.
And while how sex crimes were addressed was one of the topics that led to the next review, the exercise is intended to be much broader and encompass many other aspects of gender equality, she said.
“STRUCTURAL ISSUES”
Speaking from her own experience in the legal industry, she said that women were well represented there, but this was not necessarily the case in other sectors.
The share of women on the boards of the top 100 publicly traded companies in Singapore was just 16.2% last year.
“I was a lawyer in private practice and at my firm, which was then the largest law firm in Singapore, more than half of the partners were women. Three of the five members of the highest policy-making body were women, ”he said.
“So, you know that you are surrounded by all these very articulate, talented and very bright women, and you don’t go away thinking that women are somehow oppressed.”
But there are some structural problems in Singapore that are “products of the () sociocultural system” and have yet to be addressed, he said. For example, women take on more caregiving responsibilities and many have to choose between family and career.
Achieving gender equality requires a “profound change of mind” as well as changes in Singapore’s cultural value system, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Sunday (September 20). Jeraldine Yap reports.
These problems cannot be tackled by the government alone, he said, noting that in Scandinavian countries parents are expected to take time off work to help care for their children.
“It tells you that the role that men play is very important to try to change the perspective, and that cannot be done by the government alone … I think these are all things that should be analyzed.”
FEES AND TOKENISM
When asked how far she would go to ensure better representation of women on company boards, as corporate leaders and in Parliament, she said she does not see quotas as a viable solution.
“In general, our approach has been to avoid quotas, because quotas are a short path to tokenism, and women who do it on their own merits, and there are a large number of them, could also be crossed out with the same brush … there is also that risk, ”he said.
“And we can hinder companies, banks, etc., requiring them to have a certain number when they are not prepared to do so. But I think it is possible to give a much stronger push … to incentivize, for example, through corporate governance measures ”.
READ: Women in Singapore earn 6% less than men for similar work: MOM study
GENDER GAP, NATIONAL SERVICE
Similarly, the response to the gender pay gap in Singapore is not necessarily a “government order” that there must be equal pay, he said.
“You want to create the mindset, you want to deal with social and cultural issues, you want to make sure that equal opportunities, you want to define equality as a core value,” he said.
“You want to do everything you can to push society in that direction, and then these things, you have to try and let the market take care of it.”
When asked for her response to the argument that true equality requires women to do National Service, she laughed and said, “I will ask those people to go and try to be a woman. And go through the lived reality, and… look at the challenges that women go through ”.
Mr Shanmugam added that while the majority in Singapore would agree with gender equality in principle, the real issue is how it can be updated.
“What does it mean when rubber hits the streets? In the workplace, in schools, in terms of promotions, in terms of recognizing the role of women in caregiving? … There will, I think, be important points of view diverge and we don’t have all the answers, “he said.
“The task that the three female co-chairs are engaged in is trying to see where you can get consensus in all these areas and then come up with a White Paper.
Listen to the full episode of the Heart of the Matter podcast with Shanmugam, where she talks about why gender equality is important to Singapore.
New episodes of Heart of the Matter are posted every Thursday at cna.asia/podcasts.
