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SINGAPORE – Through collective efforts over the years, the position of women in Singaporean society has improved significantly in areas such as education, representation in Parliament and contributions to the economy, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Internal and Legal K. Shanmugam.
Other efforts, she said, helped close gaps in areas that affected women, such as last year’s amendments to the Penal Code that specifically addressed voyeurism, among other things, and the formation of an interagency task force earlier this year. to combat family violence and protect victims.
However, there are still areas where advancing women’s interests is a “work in progress” and some of the issue remains structural, she added.
Shanmugam, in a speech on Sunday (September 20), announced a comprehensive review of the issues affecting gender inequality that will culminate in a White Paper to be tabled in Parliament in the first half of next year.
She added that a virtual dialogue session titled “Conversations on Women’s Development,” which took place after her speech, would begin to work on gathering comments on issues affecting women at home, school, places. work and community.
The review, Shanmugam said, will be led by three women in political positions: the Minister of State for Education and Social and Family Development, Sun Xueling, the Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, and Commerce and Industry Low Yen Ling and the Parliamentary Secretary of Health, Rahayu Mahzam.
It is the continuation of a journey that began many years ago, and a key point was the approval of the Women’s Charter in 1961, before the independence of Singapore.
The letter was landmark legislation during its time, he said, and provided for monogamous marriage and the rights and duties of married people at a time when polygamous marriage was common.
As a key piece of legislation governing women’s rights, the charter has been modified over the years, as in 2016 and last year, to better support vulnerable women or girls in crisis situations and family violence, as well as to strengthen the application of the law against online vices. she added.
In addition to the Women’s Charter, new laws have also been added to protect the interests of women. “This has been one of my key priorities as Minister of the Interior and Minister of Law,” Shanmugam said.
These include amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Law in 2018 to reduce the trauma inflicted on victims during the criminal justice process, and changes to the Criminal Code last year, which repealed marital immunity for rape, among other things.
This year, changes to the Protection Against Harassment (Amendment) Act made it possible for victims to obtain protection orders against stalking, stalking and bullying online, he added.
Mr Shanmugam said: “We also facilitate the process for women to file complaints and obtain justice.” One example, he added, was the establishment of the OneSafe Center by the police so that victims of sexual assault undergo forensic and medical examinations in a place with greater privacy.
The Task Force on Family Violence, created earlier this year and co-chaired by Ms Sun and the Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development, Faishal Ibrahim, will complete its study and provide recommendations next year, it added.
Shanmugam said that women have done well in many sectors, including medicine, law, accounting, finance, and some aspects of the knowledge economy. “But there are areas that are still being worked on,” she added.
Referring to the Board of Directors Diversity Council formed in 2014 to address the underrepresentation of women in board positions, she said that women on the boards of the top 100 companies on the Singapore Stock Exchange were 7.5% in 2013. That increased to 16.2% last year.
Part of the problem, he added, was structural.
Shanmugam said working women are often forced to choose between work and family, a difficult decision that men rarely face.
“We want women to be presented with real options, free from unequal expectations about the roles of men and women in society,” she said.
Still, Singapore has done “pretty well,” he said. She noted that there were 28 women MPs in Parliament out of a total of 95 seats, a proportion of around 29 percent. “This is higher than the Inter-Parliamentary Union world average of 24.5 percent.”
The literacy rate for women was 96 percent last year, up from 86 percent in 1995. And Singapore ranks first in the proportion of women employed with advanced degrees in the 2020 Global Innovation Index, she said.
Mr. Shanmugam said: “A society that does not recognize the equal position of women is a society that can never reach its potential, especially in Singapore, where people are our only asset.
“The outcome of this process is not just a White Paper with recommendations, it has to be a clear message to all young women today and in the future that Singapore will always be a place where they can reach their full potential.”
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