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https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/over-1-5-sporeans-believe-gender-discrimination-exists-workplace-survey-1834601

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The media event saw four small- and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NTUC, committing to implementing human resource policies that manage workplace gender discrimination and harassment.

On top of organising talks and webinars, the U WAF will also be providing resources, such as a sample human resource policy, to assist SMEs achieve these goals.

Training will also be provided for SMEs' human resource team and management personnel to equip them with the skills needed to tackle discrimination or harassment in the workplace.

Ms Yeo said that the survey underscored the need for SMEs to implement clearer discrimination and harassment policies, with only one-third of respondents saying that their companies have communicated such policies to them.

Almost 70 per cent of the respondents work in large companies with more than 200 employees.

Some of the survey findings were:

Although 23 per cent of respondents thought that there was gender discrimination in the workplace, 41 per cent of these respondents did not have evidence to substantiate it

One in 10 female respondents said that they had been passed over for promotion or career advancement. This was twice the number for male respondents

Two in five women were willing to report instances of gender discrimination, while three in five men were willing to do so

The top reason for an unwillingness to report gender discrimination was a fear of causing someone to lose their job

Traditional Chinese medicine firm Oriental Remedies Group was one of the SMEs to sign the MOU.

Chief executive officer Beatrice Liu saw the importance of having robust anti-discrimination policies in place because she experienced workplace harassment at the company where she worked previously.

"There was a manager who had a history of throwing things at people. There was one time he got quite agitated at something on the computer and he took his mouse and almost threw it at me," Ms Liu said, adding that she was pregnant at that time.

After raising the issue with her company's human resource department, there was no follow-up by the department even after six months. The incident prompted her to quit her job because it made her feel unsafe.

Market research firm YouGov reported that 71 per cent of women agreed that there was unequal treatment of both genders at work. Women in certain sectors, such as construction and health, were more affected by gender inequality.

The survey results for the above were released on Feb 20, and based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys. It found that:

Women in the construction sector were most affected by gender inequality, with 82 per cent of respondents indicating that the issue existed

This was followed by those working in engineering, design or architecture at 77 per cent and health or medical services at 77 per cent

It found that respondents, who were young women aged 18 to 24, were most likely to say that gender disparity in the workplace existed, with 74 per cent who agreed. Only 5 per cent indicated that there was none.

Ms Yeo from NTUC U SME and U WAF said: "I hope that going forward, (gender inequality) will be something that is a whole-of-society effort because it does take the whole of society to recognise gender discrimination and harassment."

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Over 1 in 5 S'poreans believe gender discrimination exists in the workplace: Survey

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The media event saw four small- and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NTUC, committing to implementing human resource policies that manage workplace gender discrimination and harassment. On top of organising talks and webinars, the U WAF will also be providing resources, such as a sample human resource policy, to assist SMEs achieve these goals.

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https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/ips/publications/details/commentary-what-s-behind-varying-attitudes-about-gender-equality-in-singapore

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SINGAPORE: For all the progress made in improving understanding between men and women in the road towards gender equality, the biggest hurdle to cross is the one between our ears.

Some women's issues in the news have sparked online debates on gender equality in Singapore - from Facebook to Twitter and Reddit.

These online discussions typically raise the usual contentions: Females, without National Service obligations, have an unfair head start at work. Women are more likely to gain custody of young children after a divorce even if men are good fathers. Or that a woman's accusation of a sexual crime is taken more seriously than a man's denial.

Despite detailed responses debunking relevant myths by the authorities from time to time, there are corners of our population who continue to feel uneasy, even discontented about societal goals of greater gender equality.

Singapore is not unique in this regard. Globally, groups claiming to represent the voices of men allegedly losing out to gender equality norms have been pushing back calls for greater protection of women's rights.

They include the anti-feminist movement in South Korea and the incel movement in North America - a loose network of single men who misguidedly attribute their luckless love lives to the perceived fussiness of their women counterparts or believe that feminism "has gone too far".

To be clear, many men here in Singapore stand for gender equality. Those who oppose it are, fortunately, in the minority.

Based on the 2020 World Values Survey polling over 2,000 Singaporean respondents, only 21 per cent of men surveyed agreed a university education is more important for a boy than for a girl.

Only 28 per cent of male respondents believed that men make better business executives than women. Slightly under one in four male respondents believed a relationship in which the wife earns more than her husband would raise problems for their married life.

DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES OVER GENDER EQUALITY

Demographic and income differences can explain part of this split in attitudes.

Highly educated and younger respondents from affluent backgrounds were more likely to support gender equality compared to other demographic groups, the same survey found.

Greater exposure to news around gender equality and an increasingly gender-neutral curriculum in their formal education, equip these respondents with knowledge to approach outmoded gender stereotypes.

They grew up when home economics became compulsory for all lower secondary school pupils since 1997. More of their parents are likely to be dual-income households.

But such variations over what gender equality looks like also stems from differing viewpoints on whether this requires an imposed uniformity of roles between both sides.

The thinking goes: If gender equality means that men and women must be subject to the same, equal standard, why do women need concessions like maternity leave or different standards in athletic competitions? Why should they be given these benefits?

To answer these questions, there is a need to differentiate between "sex" and "gender".

The former refers to the biological differences that changes little across societies or time periods like the ability of a woman to give birth that men do not have. The latter describes the roles society ascribes to men and women, which include patterns of domestic duties between husband and wife.

In sports and athletics, where biological differences result in some differences between the sexes, the creation of women's sports with different standards recognises fair competition based on equitable standards.

Championing gender equality means providing equal opportunities for both sexes to pursue their aspirations. Imposing blind uniformity in rules or policies, on the hand, might end up disadvantaging women instead.

Some single-income households embrace a traditional gendered division of domestic labour - one works while the other stays home to take care of the children and housework - often out of economic convenience rather than conviction over gender roles. Couples should be given the space to make their own life choices.

But interestingly, while women have long been the stay-home spouse, even norms here are shifting. In 2017, the Manpower Ministry found stay-home dads have doubled to 1,500 from 700 in the preceding decade.

TENSIONS WITH EARLY ATTITUDES

The influence of early socialisation cannot be discounted in shaping gender expectations. We learn about gender roles as children, including societal, cultural, and even religious expectations on how the sexes should behave.

Growing up accustomed to the father working outside the home and the mother, despite also having a full-time job, returning to cook and clean, a child internalises the idea his mother's - and, by extension, women's - career is secondary to her primary responsibility at home.

It then seems natural for families, men, and women to behave in such a gendered manner.

A 2017 Insight report on Family and Work by the Ministry of Social and Family Development bears this out.

About 96 per cent of married working women polled said they were equally or primarily responsible for care-giving duties, compared to 43 per cent of married working men.

They also tend to spend more time on household chores even though they also work outside the home. Men however were more likely to contribute finances to maintain the family.

But as society slowly shifts from traditional gender roles to more progressive ones, this child - now an adult - finds his beliefs on families, men and women challenged and even deconstructed.

This dismantling evokes discomfort and may be even more severe when some religious beliefs of gender, held as unchangeable truths, are redefined.

Yet, Singapore's cultural-religious sphere has evolved to provide more equitable spaces for women at a time when society did not.

Advocacy of the founding members of the (PPIS) in the early 1950s and 1960s created spaces for Malay women to cultivate financial and personal independence in learning working skills and religious and academic literacy. These also helped to carve a more equitable outlook for women during the formulation of the Administration of Muslim Law Act.

Today, other forms of cultural relearning and expansion are taking place.

Through movements such as Dads for Life, many men have come to embrace more equitable gender roles in their families, especially in caregiving duties.

Religious communities too have used their platforms to reach male followers to educate them on gender relations within a religious perspective.

The Islamic Council of Singapore (MUIS), for example, have used Friday prayer sermons to talk about the fair treatment of women and the roles of a father in today's families, with the message easily reaching all levels and ages of Muslim men in Singapore.

MAKING FURTHER PROGRESS IN GENDER EQUALITY

While many low-hanging fruit have been plucked in Singapore's journey to empower and support women, the road ahead might be less clear.

Moving forward to enhance the participation of women as part of the Government's White Paper on Women's Development mean those who do not hold the same values might find themselves being excluded or mocked for their views.

This is where tolerance, respectful dialogue and education are needed to find a common middle ground.

There is a tendency to think men with concerns over gender equality are an impersonal, faceless albeit angry bloc of people. But dismissing their views could inadvertently increase opposition towards the cause of gender equality.

In moving across this river, Singapore should tread carefully and feel the stones, accepting three premises to avoid the move towards gender equality becoming a flashpoint for heated cultural debates.

First, there is an urgent need to address issues on gender inequality in society. While policy reforms can be quickly passed by Parliament, cultural change happens at a much slower pace.

Greater sensitisation of gender equality and individual acceptance require time. Sociologists call this "lagged adaptation", where men may express more egalitarian ideas of gender, but lack the skills or will to act upon these ideas.

Second, societal discourse requires we lay aside stereotypes to debate issues rather than identities.

Rather than conceive of feminists as "triggered tumblrina", a politically active female blogger who often posts issues relating to social justice on her blog, or reduce men with worries to chauvinist bigots, we should look to measured dialogue to negotiate changing norms.

Organisations like Dads for Life and PPIS provide resources and safe, educational, and respectful spaces to learn about the changing roles of men and women in society.

Communities like these present men with role models who have accepted new masculinity norms, learned to negotiate this with their partners and thrived in the process.

Such engagement strategies help shift perspectives, even among those with more traditional notions of gender, perhaps among older members of our extended family.

Hearing personal explanations of changing gender roles and expectations from a family member might make the message a little easier to swallow - as it can be contextualised and supported with examples the recipient can better relate to.

Third, while advocacy for gender equality matters, these must move beyond a zero-sum game of "rights" and "privilege" and focus instead on how implementing equitable social systems benefits all segments of society.

These should recognise that some social groups might have different ways of understanding gender equality, given Singapore's multicultural and multireligious Singapore context.

Singular, homogenous progressive explanations of gender equality should make room for inclusive, diverse but tolerable nuances on the scale of equality.

This includes providing resources for pro-women and pro-gender equality cultural and religious groups to define gender equality norms within the boundaries of their culture or faith.

Mathew Mathews is Head of the Social Lab and Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore. Syafiq Suhaini is Research Associate at the IPS.

This piece was first published in CNA on 3 October 2021.

Top photo from Pexels.

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commentary: what’s behind varying attitudes about gender equality in singapore

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Commentary: What's behind varying attitudes about gender equality in Singapore

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SINGAPORE: For all the progress made in improving understanding between men and women in the road towards gender equality, the biggest hurdle to cross is the one between our ears. Some women's issues in the news have sparked online debates on gender equality in Singapore - from Facebook to Twitter and Reddit.

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https://www.aware.org.sg/2022/04/the-workplace-should-be-the-driving-force-of-gender-equality/

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ARE Singapore's workplaces doing enough to address gender inequality?

On Mar 28, the government unveiled its long-awaited White Paper on Singapore Women's Development: a 25-point action plan, 18 months in the making. The first action on the list? Introduce new workplace fairness legislation - specifically, by enshrining the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices in law to ban discrimination on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity and other grounds.

This legislation, first raised by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at last year's National Day Rally, has been met with widespread approval. Yet while the law will surely make for a strong deterrent and signal to society that discrimination is unacceptable, the White Paper also points out that "legislation is not a panacea". If so, what else will it take to bring the working world up to speed?

There has been, traditionally, a vein of scepticism regarding the effectiveness of championing gender equality in corporate spaces, governed as they often are by the capitalistic emphasis on profit and productivity over well-being and inclusion. Yet at AWARE's training arm, Catalyse, we are truly optimistic about reimagining work for the better.

Many companies and business groups today are stepping up to champion gender equality and other forms of diversity and inclusion. Spurred in part by the pandemic, these companies know that today's investors expect them to help make the world a better place. ESG (environment, social and governance) criteria and stakeholder capitalism are more than trendy buzzwords - investors want to see women and other minorities represented on boards and senior management teams.

More than that, companies are also cognisant that gender equity is a talent and leadership issue, and that they cannot afford not to attract, retain and promote female talent. Singapore's female talent pool is under-utilised, considering that for more than 10 years, our female graduates have outnumbered male graduates. If women worked at the same rate as men, our workforce would boast at least 225,000 more workers - about 25 per cent more women than we have today. This war for talent has only been intensified by the Great Resignation of the past couple of years.

So how exactly can we reclaim our workplaces from the patriarchy's clutches?
The problem with male-dominated industries
A question we get often at Catalyse is how women can break into male-dominated industries or companies.

We recently came across an industry where female representation in most key functions was below 5 per cent. The 2 major reasons for this, as cited by the workers, were that:

1) women lacked the aptitude to be creative leaders in that field, and

2) the demands of the work were simply not possible to balance with care responsibilities.

The first point is unscientific and largely unacceptable in many spaces. Yet perhaps it should not be surprising: After all, a recent survey by the Ministry of Manpower found that around 4 per cent of job applicants in Singapore face discrimination due to their pregnancy status. Another 7 per cent of female job applicants face discrimination on the basis of having children, while 4 per cent of all applicants face gender discrimination in general.

While these numbers are down from the survey's previous edition in 2018, they point to a strain of unconscious biases that survives - and even thrives - in certain industries: that men are, for instance, better at problem-solving, or that women are more nurturing by nature and thus best suited for care work.

The second point, about work-care incompatibility, is probably true, and is also a function of bias - albeit a different, more structural sort of bias. These barriers to women are not so much expressed by individuals making individual decisions, but are baked into the very design of many workplaces. They take the form of work cultures that privilege the people who, for example, show up in person at the office (rather than virtually), and do not have to take leave at short notice or for extended periods of time, and have regular work hours that are not friendly to parents (for example, scheduling meetings for when school lets out). In this particular industry, for instance, it was common for people to work long 18-hour days (an extreme example, to be sure).

To the unquestioning, these work conventions may seem immutable. Yet they are just that - conventions - and based on implicit assumptions that penalise women, for example, "commitment to work should always trump commitment to family care".

Worryingly, though, these are self-perpetuating systems. Women may feel uncomfortable and marginalised when their representation in a given space is less than the critical mass of 30 per cent. Such a space may indeed only attract the women who are willing and able to assimilate into patriarchal systems to thrive, for example, those who can refrain from showing much emotion in a bid to appear "tough", or who lack (or give up) a desire to have children.

Some of these women may even deny the presence of gender bias or barriers, based on their own success. They may tell other women "if I can do it, so should everybody", a perspective that fails to take into account the countless differences between people of the same gender. This makes it more difficult for women who do face obstacles to speak up for fear of seeming "weak". So where should large-scale change come from?
Work can change, for women and men both
The White Paper proposes developing career mentorship, networking opportunities and training programmes for women at work - for example, focusing on women re-entering the workforce after an absence, for example, due to having children. These and other promising measures, such as the new Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangements, will hopefully usher in a new era for working mothers - one that isn't characterised by stress, exhaustion and onerous mental load.

Of course, we have already seen companies embarking on similar initiatives: from the establishment of women's sponsorship and leadership programmes, to Unconscious Bias training and the introduction of specialised roles such as Diversity and Wellness Officers. Cynics may write off these interventions as "virtue-signalling" wastes of time, but they do make an impact, according to many women we have spoken to.

Catalyse has also been engaged as an external consultant to conduct employee focus groups, obtaining honest feedback in order to identify a company's gaps in inclusion. Even male-dominated companies have embarked on robust investigations to take stock of, for example, their gender pay gaps and the gender breakdowns in hiring, promotion and retention. With this information, they can put new internal policies, practices and goals in place. For instance, they may mandate that executive search firms present a slate with at least 30 per cent female candidates, if not 50; de-identify candidates' identities at the stage of filtering CVs; and stick to structured interviews in which every candidate is asked the same questions.

And while the White Paper did not herald an increase in mandatory paternity leave entitlements, we are nonetheless encouraged by the growing trend of companies proactively including men in the fight for gender equality. Under the #DoubleUp pledge by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, for example, 9 Swedish multinational companies in Singapore doubled their paid paternity leave benefits from the government-mandated 2 weeks to 4. We're hoping that more companies step up and equalise parental leave for all genders - a surefire way to reduce the "motherhood penalty" suffered when working mums shoulder most of childcare, and improve working dads' well-being, too.

These initiatives and others - for example, corporate male allyship programmes - may offer the buy-in that so often makes the difference between failure and success for gender equality efforts.
It's about more than just work
It comes down to this: Corporate workplaces can, and therefore must, be a major driver of gender equality. Equality at the workplace has a ripple effect into other areas of life, from our relationships to our recreation, politics and culture. People who are better aware of biases, and how these biases result in microaggressions and discrimination, are more responsible - and probably more pleasant - people. Women empowered as leaders at work will also lead in other areas of life.

Gender inequality is a problem that calls for sustained effort, and we should be clear-eyed about what that will take: far more than we can achieve in one solitary Women's month, or even one White Paper. But if a multi-pronged strategy is carried out consistently, companies can work in tandem with both government and community to build a world that is inclusive and fair to all.
Corinna Lim, Executive Director, AWARE
Amy Amrita Daga, Managing Director & Consulting Principal, AWARE

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The workplace should be the driving force of gender equality

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This op-ed was originally published to The Business Times on 5 April 2022. ARE Singapore's workplaces doing enough to address gender inequality? On Mar 28, the government unveiled its long-awaited White Paper on Singapore Women's Development: a 25-point action plan, 18 months in the making.

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Irfanina, John, Siddarth, Josephine, Linus, Catherine, Zi Ying and  Shiang Yuan

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Irfanina, John, Siddarth, Josephine, Linus, Catherine, Zi Ying and  Shiang Yuan

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-Harassment

-Household care (expect female to do housework)
-Most employers prefer male candidates
-Different types of Stereotypes (eg. females are expected to act modest, female are “weaker”)

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The Teachers only let the boys carry books to their lockers. Is it because the Teachers think that we would not be able to carry books to their lockers?

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1.In some Muslim countries,women need to cover their face and head also, they can’t go out without a man.

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women lacked the aptitude to be creative leaders in that field, and the demands of the work were simply not possible to balance with care responsibilities.

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1.Women usually will not get into most jobs easily like men do like IT.
2.The marriage conditions for the women by the men is that the woman should not work and be a housewife but some women choose to be housewives but all of them have talents which are kept locked inside their houses

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Teachers choose boys to carry things all the time even though half the girls want to help.
Girls face more pain than boys
Some girls do not even get to go to school
Some jobs do not allow female  to get the jobs
More males hurt females through violence or bullying
Professional obstacles
Freedom of marriage
Boys always think that they are the best
The boys think that girls are weak and do not know anything
Boy think that girls cannot do anything

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1 out of every 6 women has been the victim of an attempted or completed 🤬 in her lifetime On average, there are 463,634 victims (age 12 or older) of 🤬 and sexual assault each year and that is only in United States

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96 per cent of married working women polled said they were equally or primarily responsible for care-giving duties, compared to 43 per cent of married working men.

Around 4 per cent of job applicants in Singapore face discrimination due to their pregnancy status. Another 7 per cent of female job applicants face discrimination on the basis of having children. In the first article, there was an example of harrassment. A woman claimed that her manager got mad at her and threw things at her, knowing that she was pregnant at the time.

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Dharsh, Dawson,Yanchen, Hayne, Hongyu, WenHao

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Dharsh, Dawson,Yanchen, Hayne, Hongyu, WenHao

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Stereotypes. Most people expect men to work more and help the family financially while most women are not expected to work and stay at home to take care of the children and do chores.

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For every dollar men get, women get 77 cents. Women carry out 2.5 times more unpaid work than men.

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Male face discrimination as they have to go to the army but females have a choice on going to the army or not to.

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Boys have to go to the army but girls don’t

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Joy Ng, Yi Xuan, Shinvanth, Yi Yuan(ver.2)

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Joy Ng, Yi Xuan, Shinvanth, Yi Yuan(ver.2)

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1)In the past, some Singaporean’s favourite boys over girls
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/when-everyone-wants-a-boy-child

2)Usually, there are more incidents on women getting sexually harassed than men. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/the-understudied-female-sexual-predator/503492/

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A special report by the Straits Times' Foreign Correspondents team on the effects of gender preferences on China, India and Vietnam. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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- Males who are Singapore citizens have to go to army when they turn 18