By Zheng Xiaoyi
SINGAPORE, June 6 (Xinhua) -- In a fast changing global economy, achieving work-life harmony should be a high priority of Singapore women, Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, a well-known Singpore woman politician, said here Friday.
In an e-mail interview with Xinhua in the context of the Global Summit of Women (GSW) held in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi this week, Yu-Foo, 58, who is in charge of Singapore's women's movement, said she hopes to see more Singaporean women taking steps to achieve work-life harmony in "today's 24/7 economy".
Women need to identify and seize new opportunities, stay relevant and acquire new skills continuously in the globalization world which brings fierce competition, she said. However, "we cannot let the demands of work weaken our links with our family," she added.
When asked what is the top mission of her ministry to improve the city-state's modern working women's lives, Yu-Foo, who is the Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, noted that with more women in the workforce, her ministry is working to provide even more accessible, affordable family-friendly support services such as child care and elder care services to help women transit more smoothly from and into the work force.
Statistics show that in the southeast Asian country of 4.5 million population, 54 percent of women residents aged 15 and over were in the workforce last year, up from 50 percent in 1996.
To give women the choice to work, she said, affordable and easily accessible center-based child care is available to those who require support for their child care needs.
For example, the Singapore government provides a center-based child care subsidy of 150 Singapore dollars (about 110 U.S. dollars) per month to working mothers.
The government has also introduced a 10 million Singapore dollars fund to help companies develop and implement work-life or family-friendly work practices. Those practices include telecommuting, flexible hours, part time work options and job sharing.
With more mothers working, fathers must be more pro-active at home, Yu-Foo said, adding that to promote parenting as a shared responsibility, her ministry encourages fathers to play a greater role in their children's upbringing by some initiatives, such as "10,000 fathers reading to their children", "Back to School with Dad" and the "Great Dads of the Year" competition.
"It is my wish to get the 3P - the people, private and public sectors, to come forward to adopt and implement work-life initiatives in the workplace in a big way," she added.
On the challenges for women in the Asia-Pacific region, Yu-Foo pointed out that the challenges are varied, "depending on where they live in, and their specific circumstances".
Poverty, education, medical services and work opportunities are still the main challenges that women in the region are facing, she said.
"To improve women's access to employment options, more needs to be done to reduce gender gaps in education," she said, adding that "there is also a need to reduce gender discrimination which exists in all areas of social, economic and political life and in households, communities, markets and governments."
As a Singapore Member of Parliament (MP) since 1984, she also hopes to see an increase in the region in women's representation in national parliaments and local governmental bodies, "so that women's voices can be heard."
In Singapore, there is more female representations in Parliament. Following the May 2006 General Elections, 23 of 94 MPs, or 24.5 percent are women. Based on data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Singapore is ranked 36 out of 188 countries in terms of the percentage of women in the Lower or single House, and its 24.5 percent exceeds world average of 17.1 percent.
When asked what are the most important factors for women in success, Yu-Foo, the longest serving woman politician in the male-dominated parliament, said, "irrespective of what our station in life, women must believe they can make the difference in what they do - be it at work or at home."
"What is needed is a strong sense of conviction and commitment to spur us to achieve our dreams to make the world a better place for ourselves, our loved ones, our communities, country and mankind," she added.
She also believes life is a life-long learning journey, "we have to keep an open mind and see things from different perspectives. This will help one to learn and grow as a person."
