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Everything About the White Paper on Women’s Development in S’pore Summarised for You

2022-03-29 , 12:20 pm

It’s a blessing and a privilege to be born as a woman in Singapore.

And it’s not just an empty-handed compliment or some pro-PAP propaganda, but simply facts that Singapore has made great strides towards gender equality.

Sure, it’s still a patriarchal society, some forms of misogyny lurk quietly in the dark, there are still inherent biases, but at least these things are acknowledged, and they’re slowly being changed and reformed.

Here’s everything you need to know about the White Paper on Women’s Development.

Equal Opportunities in Workplaces

Under the White Paper, a new set of Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangements was introduced, to ensure that employers must consider staff requests for flexible work hours fairly and properly by 2024.

The pandemic has forced huge shifts in how work can be accomplished, especially given that 50% of the workforce were made to work from home to contain the virus infection.

The Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang explains that flexible work arrangements can still remain in place, even after the pandemic ends.

She believes that it will sustain efforts to support a good work-life harmony, and encourage a greater utilisation of parental leave.

Flexible work hours will benefit both genders in the sense that abled workers with caregiving responsibilities can continue or return to work without any barriers, which would also give employers access to a larger talent pool.

In order to facilitate the process for returns to the workforce, career mentorship, networking opportunities and training programmes will be made available.

To combat workplace harassment and ensure fair practices in employment, the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment be made permanent on the law books.

A Committee for Fair Practices will be established, giving employees an avenue where they can report workplace discrimination and harassment without retaliation, while protecting the confidentiality of their identities.

The Singapore Exchange Listing Rules and Practice Guidance to the Code of Corporate Governance has also been revised to enhance board diversity, specifically in the gender diversity aspect.

With regards to this change, the White Paper read, “This is a significant move to secure listed companies’ commitment to appoint more women on boards.”

Recognition and Support for Caregivers

Under this area, the first to be expanded is the Household Services scheme, which now includes basic child- and elder-caring services.

Secondly, the Home Caregiving Grant has been increased from $200 to $400 a month for lower-income households.

Thirdly, the Seniors’ Mobility and Enabling Fund has been expanded to negate some of the costs accrued from caring for seniors.

An inter-agency task force has been formed to develop a child and maternal health and well-being strategy The plan is to give every pregnant woman quality maternal care services.

The Agency for Integrated Care will be promoted as a resource that seniors and caregivers can tap into. Since the Agency will be working with community partners, it can create a peer support network for caregivers to better connect them to the assistance they need.

The Retirement Sum Topping-Up Scheme tax relief maximum has been increased from S$7,000 to S$8,000, for both top-ups to self and family members.

The government is also intending to provide more help to caregivers of people with disabilities and children with developmental needs.

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Protection Against Violence and Harm

Penalties for three sexual offences have been raised, such as outrage of modesty and exploitation of minors.

For example, the White Paper states that Attorney-General’s Chamber will be more inclined to object rehabilitative sentences for adult offenders who commit sexual and abuse offences.

In simpler terms, rather than going for lighter sentences (rehabilitative), adult sexual offenders are more likely to be jailed (isolation) or punished via caning (retribution).

The National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline has expanded its reach to help any victim of domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The helpline will also be expanded into an application, which will allow people to seek help through their mobile phones by the end of 2022.

The Break the Silence Campaign will be restarted to increase the awareness and accessibility of resources for victims of abuse.

Another aspect of abuse tackled by the White Paper pertains to domestic violence.

In order to increase the protection given to survivors for family violence, the family violence response framework will be improved upon, and awareness will be raised through public education.

Besides that, victims of online harms have been newly added to the category.

The Alliance for Action was recently created to tackle online harms, especially threats that target women and girls.

Other Support Measures for Women

Out of all the items declared in the White Paper, perhaps one of the most surprising and technologically geared items was elective egg freezing for women aged 21 to 35 years, but only legally married couples can use this for procreation.

There will be more support provided to single parents, of which includes divorcing or divorced women.

With regards to divorcing matters, there is now an option of divorce by mutual agreement of the irretrievable breakdown of marriage, and more clauses have been put in place to ensure the enforcement of maintenance orders.

In order to provide more assistance to low-income families with children, childcare centres that extend out of usual operating hours will be set up.

Paradigm Shifts

The Women’s Charter has been amended to reflect that men and women are recognised as equal and separate legal persons, thereby affording the same rights.

The specific rights and obligations of a married woman have been all but removed, since it was deemed irrelevant and a “product of historical legacy”.

Character and Citizenship Education in schools have also been revised to address gender-based mental stereotypes more directly, especially those that concern women, their career choices, and the roles played in a family.

The White Paper writes that it’s important to model equitable and supportive relationships between men and women for the children of the future generation.

Prejudices, inherent biases, beliefs in stereotypes are taught; they are social constructs that are moldable through external influences.

It is necessary to inculcate gender-responsive standards in children, to improve and promote greater gender diversity in standards development.

Last but not the least, to reflect the “enduring importance” of women’s development in Singapore, the government will be working with the community to design a public garden in the city centre that “honours and celebrates the pioneering spirit and contributions of Singapore women”.

Rather than it just being history, perhaps there will be her story as well.

All in all, the White Paper is a culmination of shared vision and values, setting out actionable plans for the society to advance women’s development in Singapore together.