Singapore Women's Development

Sir, I rise in support of this Motion that clearly reiterates the importance of the role of women in our society. Let us continue to explore more initiatives to provide the continuous and necessary support for women in our journey towards a fairer and more inclusive society.

When this White Paper was released, I reached out to my female fellow union leaders, both young and mature, who are also female workers. From the exchange I had with them, I will just focus my thoughts on workplace opportunities and challenges, while in my Malay speech segment, highlighting the importance of appreciation and protection for women.

As we all know, in a recently released labour force participation survey in Singapore for the years from 2012 to 2021, it is very heartening to note and observe an increase in women's participation, from 57.7% to 64.2%. The question is, could it have been more and higher up the ranks? Our collective immediate response must be an affirmative yes! Then, how do we entice and encourage women into the workforce, putting in measures and support that ensure not just a higher labour participation, but further raise the capabilities of our total workforce? In addition, what are the areas that we can identify, so that these women can both bridge the gap in capabilities, if any, and also towards achieving higher productivity, which can, in turn, boost our economy? This may look easy on paper but, in reality, we need more employers to be more welcoming and embracing of women in their organisation, and also emplace them in leadership roles. Women should continue to be given more opportunities for a higher role, based on their capabilities and merits.

Understanding women challenges, employers must also do their part by adopting and practising FWAs at their workplace, while, at same time, also applying fair performance appraisal towards women in their organisations.

I mentioned fair performance appraisal because this is also an area of concern to some women workers that I spoke to before. While they hope and wish for an increase in the duration of maternity leave from the current four months to six months, deep inside, they are also worried about the negative repercussions for those who have to be away in view of their maternity leave. While these women really hope for the increase for a much-needed rest after each pregnancy and delivery of a child, they also expressed concern that there are instances where they knew of fellow workers losing out in their performance bonuses during this absence, or worse, some do even get less because they are seen to be less capable than their male counterparts.

Hence, I call on employers to be more accommodative and understanding towards your female workers in such circumstances. Let us not demoralise the women for their absence but evaluate their contributions in a fair, constructive and also productivity-related work outcome. Hopefully, by embracing an objective performance evaluation through adoption of tripartite standards of fair employment practices, this will, certainly, further increase and improve their morale.

Sir, the daily routine of women is much more challenging than men, as after a day at work, they still need to attend to their children and also not forgetting, their husband. Luckily, the clock is just 24 hours because the way women get things done, the clock does not seem to be just 24 hours.

A female leader and worker recently shared with me a summary of her observations on the workplace challenges faced by women and I quote in her own words, "To be honest, over the years, there has been constant advocating against such societal stigmas, and we know, no matter what, the issue of gender inequality and stereotypes still exist today, regardless of within or outside of the workplace. The key question is, how do we provide the platform whereby these guidelines can be put into action and is more legally binding? Perhaps, setting a criteria framework of sorts for companies to adhere to? In short, we can go on and on and on advocating, but what is the outcome since then and now?"

Sir, I can only comfort the leader but, deep in my heart, I know what she said is the real truth and the improvements could have been more and better. Hence, I certainly welcome the move to introduce the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangements and boost its adoption of Tripartite Standards on Flexible Work Arrangements. Sir, I will now speak in Malay.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Mr Speaker, the position or status of women in our society has progressed over the years and we have seen many women excel in their careers, on par with the men. Notwithstanding their achievements in their careers, we also cannot ignore the ongoing perpetration of violence against women, both physically and emotionally. More efforts are needed to protect women from such violence committed by men, and the worst ones involves victims of any sexual harassment.

I certainly welcome the move to increase the punishment for these sexual offences aimed at enhancing protection and support for victims or survivors of any family violence. Although family violence like these usually results in separation, there is one person who continues to protect the family's core. This is the sacrifice usually made by women because men do not have the same emotional capability as women.

In this situation where separation is inevitable, it is useful for the couple to make informed decisions in the interest of their children. Each divorce does not only involve the couple, but others in the family, too, because it will have an emotional impact on their children.

I also hope for more support for single parents who need to manage between earning a living and taking care of their children. Is there a centre that can provide child-minding services so that the affected parents can feel reassured while they are at work? I urge the ex-husbands to show more concern towards your former life partners for their sacrifices in raising your children, by ensuring that the payment of maintenance is done in a timely manner.

Please do not make them wait or, worse, plead for the money needed to raise your children, who are born out of the love you once shared with your former partner. In addition, find the time to be with your children so that your ex-wife can have her own personal time, just like you. I would like to remind myself and my fellow husbands and fathers, to love and protect the women in our lives, just as our mothers took care of us from the cradle until the time they depart this world. Furthermore, especially for the wives, please love our wives, pamper them with the things that they want whenever we have the means to do so. Please remember that no amount of money comes close to a wife’s sacrifice when she bears our children, and cares for and nurtures them.

In closing, I remind myself and all husbands of a hadith, or saying, of the Prophet: “The world is but an adornment, and the best adornment to the world are the pious and righteous wives.”

(In English): Sir, each and every man must learn to respect and protect every woman with love and care as though they are part of your family members. Once again, I repeat, Respect, Protect and Care for Women at all times!

In conclusion, if the Labour Movement or Unions have a tagline for our workers, such as "Every Worker Matters", then it is only appropriate that this Motion can be a catalyst for the tagline "Every Woman Matters", to protect our female workers against any unfair treatment relating to work and employment.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, I stand in support of the recommendations in the White Paper.

Over the years, Singapore has become a place of more equal opportunity for women, thanks to policy efforts by the Government, tireless advocacy by civil society champions and the encouragement and partnership of male allies. Each generation could start to dream bigger. Yet, as we chase the aspirations that we rightfully deserve, we run into social barriers and our own voices are often dimmed by societal expectations and mindsets that have not caught up with the times.

At the workplace today, three-quarters of Singapore women between 25 and 64 years old are employed. But the types and trajectory of women's careers tend to differ significantly from those of men. There is no lack of women at entry level but female representation tapers off in senior positions. In the boardroom, female representation stands at just 17.6% in our top 100 primary listed companies.

Women are sometimes perceived as too much or bossy when they are assertive and decisive. These women are then seen as less likeable or capable and, hence, less likely to rise through the ranks.

Leadership is not just about the boardroom or in politics. But even stepping back from becoming a prefect in Primary school, for example, for fear of being unliked for the same qualities which are viewed positively in boys, is not something that we want for our girls.

Many fast-growing and well-paying jobs are in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Yet, women account for only a third of employed residents working in STEM. Just 50% of women who graduate with STEM qualifications go on to pursue related careers in this male-dominated space.

Efforts like the mentoring programmes and workshops by Tech for She, a group of working professionals and youth and tech, are an important part of the ecosystem. Institutes of Higher Learning as well have some programmes to attract and retain female STEM talent, such as NTU's Women@NTU initiative, which also supports early career female researchers. But a European-based Microsoft survey found that young girls become interested in STEM at about age 11 and may lose interest by age 15. By focusing women in STEM efforts at the tertiary level, are we too late? I look forward to hearing more about how STEM can be made even more accessible and relevant to girls in Secondary or Primary schools.

We must amplify the story of women in STEM. Recently, a ground-up initiative, the Codette Project, which believes that every woman deserves an equal chance at success and that tech can get her there, launched an exhibition featuring minority women from different ages and backgrounds in the tech industry. It sends a clear message that these spaces belong to people like us, too, and "success looks like this", the name of the exhibition.

It is, unfortunately, still a reality that women face a childcare penalty. Mother's wages typically stagnate and enter a permanently lower trajectory, especially if they take time off to care for their children. Even when women do not become mothers, studies have shown that the mere perception of this possibility can lead them to being treated differently by co-workers. There are also times when women affected by societal pressures and unwanted reminders of ticking biological clocks hold ourselves back. For example, "I should not put myself out there for a promotion since I should be trying for a child ASAP after marriage."

I am heartened to note that there are plans to facilitate greater women's representation in leadership roles, strengthen workplace fairness and introduce new tripartite guidelines, calling on employers to consider FWA requests from employees fairly. Beyond guidelines, I also hope that societal norms will change as both parents become more actively involved in raising children.

Other than embracing women as equal partners in the workplace, these shifts need to occur in our homes, too. One focus of the White Paper is on caregiving, as many of my colleagues have spoken about.

As noted last year, there are approximately 210,000 caregivers in Singapore, most of whom are women aged 40 and above.

During my Meet-the-People Sessions, I have encountered women who told me the difficulties in securing migrant domestic workers' help during COVID-19 meant that they, as mothers, wives, sisters, aunties and daughters, had to make the tough choice to leave their jobs to ensure an elderly parent or child is looked after, while it was not even in the realm of contemplation that their brothers or husbands would do it instead. Many mothers also shared how the expectation always fell to them to take emergency leave in the case of an ill child. Emotional labour aside, caregiver's income decreases by 63% on average, reducing their ability to save for retirement.

I applaud the proposal to enhance the Home Caregiving Grant (HCG) which will now provide up to $400 in relief per month. At the same time. I believe there is room for the scheme to be expanded to better reflect the true value of unpaid caregiving.

In Hawaii, for example, the government grants up to US$70 a day to unpaid primary caregivers of senior relatives to alleviate caregiving burdens. As Singapore's population ages and care burdens increase, such models may be examined further, including how we may potentially finance them.

I hope that the criteria which a care recipient of the HCG must meet can be expanded as well, as some seniors fall just shy of the three ADL criteria, but face other serious challenges that require dedicated care and similar expenses. I also look forward to hearing more about how the Household Services Scheme can be broadened and make more accessible in a timely manner to meet demand.

Who will care for our caregivers in their old age, those who have given up hopes and dreams of their own, once the care recipients are no longer around?

I am glad to hear the efforts elaborated by Parliamentary Secretary Rahayu Mahzam earlier on this front.

I would like to briefly touch on a point that is close to the hearts of many women in my generation on setting up a home. When you get to your 20s, you are asked at every festive season, wedding and funeral, "When are you getting married?" After you get married, you are asked, "When are you having children?" When you have one child, you are asked, "Why are you stopping at one?" And when you have many children, you are asked, "Why do you have so many?"

But it is not always within the control of the woman and such comments can be very hurtful reminders of what they hope for, but have not come true. I hope that society can consider for women who remain single because of personal decisions; women who have made a tough choice to leave relationships; women who cannot have kids because of infertility challenges either of their own or of their partner; or women who need to focus on careers because they are the only child who can look after their parents.

I hope that in considering what can make a woman whole, we look at who she is and not just who she could be relative to someone else, like a wife or a mother. I hope we can, in the words of Minister Ong Ye Kung earlier, consider the unconscious remarks that we make.

On this note, I appreciate the steps we are taking on elective egg freezing. With this, women can have the time and space to make choices instead of rushing headlong into starting a family. This benefits not only them but the children they may welcome into their lives in a planned, responsible manner.

As a Member of this House who is a woman under 35 years old, it is something my peers and I have often discussed and I know that there are women slightly older who wish that they have this option, too. This is a topic that has prompted much discussion, and I hope that we can continue to have these important conversations in a way that is mindful of different beliefs and, ultimately, for greater progress.

With FWAs, leadership cultivation, this White Paper proposes actions that benefit many white-collar working women. However, any discussion on gender equality is incomplete without considering the experiences of women from lower-income backgrounds. With limited resources, it can be all the more difficult for these women to have a voice and a choice despite their courage and best efforts.

The proposed solution for lower-income women we often hear is, "Why don't you get a job?" Well, many jobs have irregular hours due to overtime while most childcare services have fixed daytime hours, making it more difficult to viably care for children without additional expenses. And although childcare subsidies do exist, the burden of proving the work hours falls onto them, and sometimes are difficult to substantiate, especially for self-employed mothers. For some families, work may, inevitably, reduce ComCare or increased HDB rental fees, such that they are in a financially worse position than should she stay at home.

I am happy to hear that KidSTART and flexible childminding support will be expanded. Yet, these women face other barriers like aspirational poverty or lower social capital. As ComLink scales up, I hope that there can also be better integrated programmes catered for women to achieve personal growth and empowerment beyond family and child-centric efforts.

Additionally, specific groups of women need more support. In this House, I have called for more to be done for families of offenders. Generally, there are 10 times more men than women in our penal population. For many male offenders in prison, they leave behind wives, sisters, mothers, daughters outside to wait and face the world. We must reach out more proactively to these women and their families to provide support from the point of incarceration to release and reintegration and not leave this assistance to chanced house visits by our teams on the ground or relying on referral pathways in the male offenders' hands. Such initiatives could make a world of difference to the women whose struggles and aspirations may otherwise be overlooked.

I recently chatted with two young women who co-founded their first business. They have worked with large tech companies, both in Singapore and overseas, and shared with me some responses they got when they introduced themselves as minority women founders, identifiers that they were proud of. One response was, "Why do you victimise yourself that way?" The double-barrelled identifiers by race and gender were somewhat affronting to some people. But why should minority and women mean victim, or less than? Why should not minority and women mean strong and capable? Mdm Deputy Speaker, in Malay, please.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] In my speech earlier, I touched on how Singapore, since long ago, has taken steps and provided opportunities for women to achieve our aspirations. The White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development shows the Government's commitment to take firm action to support women in fulfilling our aspirations. However, I hope we will not just depend on laws.

As a society, we should also play a role. Recently, we have seen an incident where misogynistic comments or a list that sexualised our religious teachers have degraded our women. The community came together to condemn such acts, and incidents like this have encouraged more discussions on the importance of respecting and upholding the dignity of our women.

Have we changed how we see the role of our mothers, older sisters, younger sisters, or wives at home? A recent study by the Singapore Muslim Women's Association (PPIS) highlighted a concern faced by Singapore Malay women. They face a dilemma of balancing their aspirations at work and at home. The study also hoped that more efforts can be implemented to overcome negative stereotypes that could further complicate the efforts of our Malay women in climbing the ladder of success.

It is my hope that more Malay/Muslim women are given the opportunity to hold positions as company chiefs and leaders of community organisations. In doing so, it will allow women to have bigger dreams so that other women, particularly our young, will dare to try and achieve the aspirations that they hope for.

(In English): Our position on Singapore Women's Development is for all of us. The policies in this White Paper do not grant women opportunities and rights at the expense of men. They seek to improve on our current system – a society in which all contributions are recognised and respected. In this Singapore, men and women can play to their strengths without labels. In my own generation, I see how equitable access to opportunities have catapulted women into lives that our mothers and grandmothers could only dream of.

I know that all of us in this House, men and women Parliamentarians alike, will work even harder such that Singapore will be fairer and more inclusive for the generations of young women to come. To our dear girls, "Don't let anyone or anything hold you back."

Mdm Deputy Speaker, I support the White Paper and look forward to the collective action that we will take as a society together.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, visually- and hearing-impaired author and advocate Helen Keller famously shared this quote about women's progress in 1904. I quote, "I think the degree of a nation's civilisation may be measured by the degree of enlightenment of its people, of its women".

Women today are no longer confined to the traditional role of homemakers alone. Over the years, women in Singapore, including myself, have benefited greatly from the meritocratic system with equal educational opportunities for all and become contributors to nation-building and social progress through our own inspiration and self-determining efforts. It is thus very encouraging for me to know that the Government is putting forth wide-ranging action plans to advance Singapore women's development, with the vision of creating an inclusive and fairer society for all.

Having been part of the consultation process, I am glad that the White Paper has captured the Government's action plans to enhance support, especially in two areas: one, equal opportunities at the workplace; and two, recognition and support for caregivers.

My speech will focus on some suggestions that could further enhance the actions to be taken in these two areas.

Firstly, I am encouraged that the Government will be developing career mentorship, network opportunities and training programmes for women at work and those re-entering the workforce.

I believe that mentorship is an excellent way to support women who intend to pursue career advancement, professional development or wish to return to the workforce. I have been providing mentorship to younger women for several years and it has been most satisfying to see these women grow in their careers.

To facilitate more of these mentoring efforts, I would like to suggest for agencies, such as Workforce Singapore and NTUC, to provide a common platform or a one-stop portal that offers resources and information on job-matching opportunities, transition training programmes as well as an available pool of mentors that women at work or re-entering the workforce can connect to.

Social platforms can allow those who are willing to be mentors to be matched with women who are seeking mentorship. This will be especially helpful for women who have been stay-home caregivers for many years and require support transitioning back to the workforce.

I am glad to share that, in partnership with fellow hon Member Yeo Wan Ling and NTUC Women and Family Unit, my constituency in Jalan Kayu will be implementing a women-mentoring-women programme to support such efforts.

Secondly, I am heartened by the recommendations to enhance caregiver support proposed in the White Paper. I have spoken about the need to enhance caregiver support in my 2021 Budget speech and I believe that action plans in the White Paper to enhance respite care options for caregivers and Home Caregiving Grant will, indeed, be welcome measures to alleviate the caregiving load.

Besides the action plans proposed for caregivers' support, I would like to call for further support for caregivers of seniors by having the Agency for Integrated Care actively promote advanced care planning, especially at the early stage of caring for their senior loved ones. This is so that the caregivers can alleviate their concerns of what would be the most appropriate care to carry out, without being burdened or feeling guilty whether the right care was given to their loved ones.

Additionally, I understand that the current MediSave Care Scheme allows individuals with severe disabilities or their spouses to withdraw up to $200 monthly, with the cap of $2,400 per year to supplement long-term care needs.

I would like to suggest that the MediSave Care Scheme be extended to senior caregivers above 65 years old that have adult children with severe disability to tap into their MediSave to support the care of their loved ones at home or in adult disability homes. This will likely help to ease their financial burdens to support the long-term care needs of their children when they become incapable of giving care to their adult children themselves. Mdm Deputy Speaker, please allow me to say a few words in Mandarin.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Deputy Speaker, since our Independence in 1965, the role of Singapore women has gradually evolved from family-centred homemakers to career women in the modern era, making substantial contributions to our country and society.

I fully support the White Paper on Singapore women’s development. The White Paper will help uplift Singapore women's status and lay the foundation for their development in the future towards a fairer and more inclusive society.

In particular, I support the action plans in two areas in the White Paper. First, equal opportunities in the workplace; second, support for caregivers.

First, I am encouraged that the Government will be developing career mentorship and training programmes for women at work and those re-entering the workforce. I have been providing mentorship to younger women and it has been most satisfying to see them grow and succeed in their careers. Therefore, I hope that the Government can provide a one-stop portal that can match women at work and those re-entering the workforce with a suitable mentor who can help them open a window of opportunity and fulfil their career aspirations.

Second, I am heartened by the recommendations to enhance female caregiver support proposed in the White Paper, such as the enhanced Home Caregiving Grant and respite services to lighten the financial and mental burden of caregivers. I hope that the Government can also pay attention to caregivers of seniors, by having the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) actively promote advanced care planning, so that seniors can ponder and plan in advance their personal care arrangement in later years. By doing this, caregivers would know what the most appropriate medical treatment and care will be, based on the seniors’ own choice, without being mentally burdened or feeling guilty.

Lastly, uplifting the social status of women requires the collaborative efforts and support from both genders. Therefore, a mindset change is crucial. To collectively build a society where men and women are equals and all can pursue their dreams freely and fully, we need our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons to give their unwavering support and close partnership. May this partnership continue to enable Singapore to become a fairer, more inclusive and united country.

(In English): Mdm Deputy Speaker, embarking on this endeavour to advance Singapore women's development is a partnership between both men and women. As the Conversations on Singapore Women's Development have rightly identified, mindset shifts in our society remain the foundational factor undergirding the progress of women in Singapore. While it is difficult to see the effectiveness of mindset shifts in the short term, it is the most needed to materialise in all the areas that we are pursuing.

I believe that the mindset shift towards empowering women need not be seen as a zero-sum game where the rights of one gender have to be compromised over the other and men are supposed to give something up. Rather, it is the empowerment of women to progress in society as a whole where they reach their fullest potential to become active contributors to realising a fairer and more inclusive society for all Singaporeans.

Thus, in order to fully appreciate the progress of women in Singapore, in our society, we need to also consider the immense support and understanding that our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons have been giving to us in this enduring partnership in women's development. May this partnership continue to flourish so that we, as a nation, can achieve greater heights together.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, notwithstanding my consideration raised, I support the White Paper on women's development.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, this White Paper holds many promises for women and, through that, promises for a better Singapore. We become better when women are more equal.

Although many of the recommendations in this White Paper will make our job market more attractive, our economy more competitive, our long-term growth more sustainable, none of these justifies our adopting the recommendations. That women should have an equal place in society is right in itself, not because it promotes some other social good.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, our journey towards equality has not been an easy one, with fits and starts and, sometimes, we become stuck for a long time. This poem "Mother and Son" written by Langston Hughes, a famous African-American poet, describes the process well. It goes like this.

"Well, son, I'll tell you:

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

It's had tacks in it,

And splinters

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor –

Bare.

But all the time,

I's been a-climbin' on."

For many women today, life is no "crystal stair" and, today, when we see girls and boys in school and safe streets at night, there remains "tacks and splinters".

Today, there remains a wage difference between men and women. Caregiving falls most heavily on women. More women are likely to be harassed sexually and there are far fewer women than men on boards of companies.

In our words and in our deeds, there remain many injustices and biases in society. One White Paper and one Motion does not make a crystal stair but it is a step up.

Over the years, there have been many such step ups, leading to the more equal landscape that we see today.

For example, the discrepancy in Singapore's adjusted gender pay gap. This has decreased from 8.8% in 2002 to 4.3% in 2020. We have halved this in 20 years. There is still a gap and the narrowing is slow. But we have made progress.

I would like to just speak on two points: equality in the workplace and on social norms.

Earlier this year, I spoke on the issue of support for mothers who may be unemployed during divorce. I also asked about support for parents with caregiving responsibilities, including greater flexible work support and other policies for better work-life harmony. For the past 15 years, I have also spoken on the need to support single mothers as part of a broader commitment to single parents.

In all these policies, I have often wondered about the lines that are drawn. For example, do we draw a line between the home and the workplace? When we give more support to women as caregivers at home, are we making them better workers and colleagues? Another example, do we support single mothers or all single parents? Do we support just mothers who are unemployed or do we do so for fathers, too, during divorce?

When we say "regardless of gender", do we mean we treat men and women the same? Is that not the right thing to do?

Well, yes and no. Some answers are easy. For example, we support single parents whether they are men or women. We support all persons who require help during their search for employment regardless of gender.

For example, for NTUC FairPrice, our commitment in developing a wonderful workplace is anchored on our human resource practices, which adhere to the principle of equality and equal employment opportunity. We employ on the basis of merit and adopt a non-discriminatory stance on race, religion, gender or age.

The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices require us to provide employment opportunities to all, including part-timers and flexi-timers. Many of these are women who juggle between home and work.

But in so doing, we make no judgement on whether it should be women or men who do this juggling. In the same way, all staff are also entitled to childcare leave and child sick leave. We have "family charity leave", which allows both men and women to either celebrate auspicious occasions with their family or to do charity work and bond with their loved ones.

We aim to ensure they are provided with not only competitive remuneration but also a safe and caring environment, a culture of continuous learning and a roadmap for career development so that every employee has the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential.

In that case, equality is the result of treating people the same. But in some cases, equality requires us also to treat women differently.

In Singapore, SMEs employ about 70% of the workforce and there are more than a quarter million of these companies.

According to a survey by NTUC and PAP Women's Wing, 23% of respondents believe there is gender discrimination in the workplace. More women felt they had been passed over for promotion or career advancement, that their companies favour men when hiring. They felt treated unfairly but they were afraid to report it to their management.

Clearly, equality here requires us to pay greater attention to providing equal respect for our colleagues who are women. Earlier this year, some SMEs have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with NTUC, which will provide consultants and resources when they set up policies, such as on proper grievance handling procedures and disciplinary actions.

The road to greater equality requires us not just to treat women like men, but to pay attention to the unfairness that exists today between them. The workplace is one of the most important spaces where such equality can be observed, can be measured and can be improved.

Within the NTUC Enterprise group that I work at, I am proud that, in our leadership team, about half of them are women. The female representation on our board of directors is about 34%, already exceeding the targeted minimum guidelines that the Singapore Institute of Directors is advocating for all boards. We need to further improve on this.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, the next part of my speech is a little harder to measure and quantify. It has to do with the way we think, speak about and to women. How many times have we interrupted women as they speak, explain to them matters which they already know – sometimes better than us? Maybe, most times, better than us. How many of us do this to women more than men? How is this okay?

"Mansplaining" – in fact, Minister Ong Ye Kung also referred to it – is so common that there is a name for it, but this has not made it less frequent. We must not only refrain from openly disrespectful behaviour, such as those that I have listed above, but also patronising ones. For example, I am sure all of us would have – well, I certainly have – experienced some senior corporate leaders, including senior civil servants, thank a male emcee by name and the female emcee by referring to her as "the beautiful young lady".

In a recent article in the newspaper – in fact, just slightly more than a week ago – a male editor wrote, "Frankly, many women prefer generous husbands and would think poorly of partners who expect them to share household expenses equally like how some couples split dining bills when they are dating."

This is truly astonishing. There is a temptation to brush these off, not to take offence too easily. But we should pause and think if such asymmetry is something that we should be proud of.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, social norms are set by all of us, men and women. We become a better society when women are more equal. That women should have an equal place in society is right in itself. So, let us keep climbing and working together. Enough with the talking and let us put all these into practice. Mdm Deputy Speaker, I support the Motion wholeheartedly.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, my speech will focus on our single women who serve as informal caregivers for our seniors, their challenges and how we can show up meaningfully for them.

In conversations with single women caregivers, a major challenge shared is their retirement inadequacy. This stems from three sources.

First, reduced unpaid work. Caregivers face difficulties holding down a full-time job while still providing care for the seniors, especially in households where the load of caregiving falls entirely on one person.

Duke NUS and MSF surveys illustrate that caregivers spend an average of 36 to 38 hours a week on caregiving, depending on the level of needs. Almost half of the caregivers surveyed do not hold a job and of those who do, 26% of them had their work affected by caregiving. Those interviewed in AWARE's 2019 survey either cut down work hours or stopped work altogether.

These work changes negatively impact the caregiver's own retirement adequacy as CPF contributions are stopped or reduced. Given that most caregivers are 45 to 59 years old, an age where they could be economically productive and be able to save up for retirement, the financial impact is significant.

Second, lower overall income of women. The negative impact on retirement savings is compounded by the fact that women also, generally, earn less than men in their working life. The 2018 MOM statistics also showed that women greatly outnumbered men in not being able to hit the CPF Basic Retirement Sum at age 55 and, at the same time, have a longer life expectancy.

Third, home ownership policies. One of the ways Singapore enhances old age income security is through the home ownership programme. In their senior years, married couples have the option of downgrading their HDB flats for a retirement income. However, this is not an option for singles, who are already limited to buying higher priced resale or 2-room BTOs in non-mature estates or in prime locations. In short, singles, specifically women, expend their financial resources on care for their parents and face financial challenges in their later years for their own care, with little to, at times, no family support.

May I make four suggestions to mitigate the negative financial impact on single women caregivers.

First, top-up of CPF from family members to caregivers. The Government could consider supplementing caregiver CPF contributions from the care recipient parents' CPF. For those who qualify for MediSave care, care recipients can be given the option for the monthly cash amounts to be transferred to the caregiver's CPF instead of their bank account. This can be done where children have been ascertained to be caregivers of a specific parent, to receive a monthly transfer from the latter.

There could also be an option for siblings who have met the Basic Retirement Sum to top-up their caregiving sibling's CPF, incentivised with an enhanced caregiver's support tax relief beyond current amounts for the contributions made, or complemented with greater subsidies for the parents' caregiver's services.

The second suggestion: healthcare subsidies based solely on household income. Having understood the concerns of some of my residents, I would like to propose a consideration for MOH relating to care recipients staying in properties of annual value (AV) $13,000 and above. In MOH's current means-testing approach, even if the household income qualifies the recipient for subsidy, but the care recipient stays in a private estate where AV is very likely to be above $13,000, no subsidy will be given to him or her. The rationale behind this is that if the senior sells their private property and moves to an HDB unit, they then should have sufficient income for healthcare costs. However, this means that the senior would then, in their old age and ill-health, have to move in and adapt to a new environment, possibly away from the environment of the people they are familiar with.

In addition to ongoing caregiver responsibilities, the single caregiver will have to figure out the sale, search and purchase of a home and make arrangements for the move. These stresses add on to the stress of change in health and care needed both for the caregiver and recipient. If access to subsidies requires seniors to move their homes in order for caregivers to access subsidies, it will also go against the grain of encouraging ageing-in-place. For care recipients with property AV of beyond $13,000, when the care recipient no longer needs to stay in the property, proceeds from the sale or rental of property could then be returned to the Government, as part of the agreement to receive subsidised care. This will help alleviate the immediate financial burdens of caregivers, ensure that the Government's subsidies are sustainable, while truly supporting seniors to age-in-place.

The third suggestion: workplace support for single caregivers. Childcare leave should be converted to a more general family care leave, to include those who are caregivers of parents, particularly single caregivers who have limited help. The number of family care leaves for such singles should be mandated by law, instead of simply encouraging employers to provide for it. While FWAs have been raised as a viable alternative, mandatory family care leave can still be added to complement FWAs, in the same way that parents are still entitled to take childcare leave, even when on FWAs. Extended family care leave should also be considered for those who have parents with dementia or conditions that require greater support.

The fourth suggestion: compensating and recognising caregivers. I am encouraged to hear that the Home Care Giving (HCG) grant will be further enhanced. I believe we can still take a greater stride to support caregivers, given their significant loss of income, by providing a calibrated monthly caregiving allowance with CPF contributions for those who have reduced work, or stopped work to be caregivers. Caregiving involves many out-of-pocket expenses, from medical supplements to transportation for medical appointments, to medical and mobility aids. These costs are even more significant for those who are disqualified from subsidies due to the AV of the care recipients' property.

Caregiving allowance is not meant to be an income replacement, but an allowance to support these out-of-pocket care expenses in caregiving and also basic personal subsistence, without disincentivising work. Instead of hiring MDWs for the work of caregiving, if children choose to give of their time and effort to do so, our policies should encourage it. Various OECD countries have formulated ways in which caregivers can be compensated, whether via allowances or care recipient benefits, which we can study to formulate one suitable and sustainable for Singapore.

The dedication of our singles to care for our seniors should be recognised and advanced in tangible ways, with policies that facilitate building a retirement safety net for them. I look forward to sustainable changes the Government would make to better support our single women caregivers financially, both in the immediate and long term. Mdm Deputy Speaker, I support the Motion.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, I would, first, like to thank all Ministries and staff, everyone who has worked very hard on this White Paper, distilling the many diverse voices into these recommendations throughout the past year, even though the pandemic has brought challenges. It is very needed momentum towards women's equality. I would like to offer three more points today for practical consideration and, later on, I would also like to address something that has come up in the course of today's debate.

One, work and housing security for low-income women; two, enabling workplace fairness and equality; and three, ensuring sustainable distribution of care.

While I welcome the recommendations in the White Paper to enable more women on boards and mentorship opportunities and PMET jobs, we need to pay special attention to lower-income women who struggle to access stable employment in the first place. And I believe, we can do more to improve work accessibility for them as a society.

Non-PMET workers have lower incomes and lesser financial resources to outsource their care needs. For example, most cannot afford to hire domestic help. We should provide them with more support to help them reduce work-care conflict. Although I am happy that the Government would be extending the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) to more sectors, we need to make sure that these higher wages are not met with strategies by businesses to cut corners on the welfare of workers, which will have a very detrimental impact on low-income women.

We can incentivise businesses to adopt innovative work allocation strategies, primarily targeted at the low-wage job sectors. This could be flexi-hours, flexi-shift, shift-swapping, compressed work weeks, core and stable scheduling, to name some examples. Now, what is core and stable scheduling? Daughters Of Tomorrow (DOT) has advocated since 2018 for employers to take up core and stable scheduling. What it means is that managers give employees their preferred shift to accommodate their care duties at home. And since DOT started enrolling employer partners in 2018, 126 companies have adopted this model successfully, where single mothers have managed to plan their daily routines more efficiently, reducing work-care conflicts, when they do not have to juggle multiple different shifts within the same week.

To enable companies to adopt core and stable scheduling, perhaps the Government can consider giving wage top-ups to workers who may not have as many care responsibilities at home to take the shifts during periods when home care is most needed, usually these are the evenings and the weekends. Such a scheme could be called "Work-Care Grants" and some may argue that the higher hourly wages could cause these evening and weekend shifts to, in turn, become more popular instead.

However, similar experiments of the international retailer Gap have shown that mothers with care responsibilities preferred to forego the marginally higher hourly wage, in favour of being able to be at home during care hours for the children.

In addition to stable shifts at work, lower-income women need better housing security. I hope the Government will look seriously into communal housing for single mothers and extended rental subsidies for vulnerable families which are striving their utmost towards social mobility.

Single mothers in shelters face massive anxiety from being told that they can only stay for six months. Shelters have to use this approach currently to ensure adequate capacity. Those who are in rental flats face similar uncertainties when weighing income opportunities against loss of rental subsidies when their salary increases. Many residents from public rental flats who sought my assistance after they have employment requested for reduction in housing rental. After securing a job and income, many want to clear their arrears or other debts that they may be owing to friends and family.

It is not uncommon for single mothers living in rental flats that Daughter Of Tomorrow (DOT) works with to turn down promotions from their employers so that they will stay within the salary band for the existing rental rate. Doing well at work, ironically, becomes a disincentive. It holds back the progress of lower-income women that we want to see the most.

We already know that the average length of stay in rental flats before families move out into their own homes is seven years. Reducing financial shocks during this period and helping the families to build buffers are critical for successful emergence from poverty.

An automatic 12-month grace period before adjusting rent in public rental flats, post-employment, will help these families greatly. I urge the Government to relook at the income criteria model for rental housing provision.

We must also, at the same time, explore more stable and sustainable alternatives, such as communal housing, in the long term.

While at DOT, I collaborated with AWARE's SHE Project, which provides two years of communal housing for two to three low-income single mothers and their children. They offered peer support to each other and pooled resources for domestic and childcare needs, which helped them retain their jobs and build up their financial resources. SHE Project showed that mothers with longer-term housing stability were better able to rebuild a path towards financial independence. This model is already in use in the US and Japan. We can study their experiences to create a model that works for Singapore.

Second, regarding workplace equality, I urge the Government to enable SMEs to build more progressive workplace cultures by supporting them in the culture and operational transformation journey. The call for non-discriminatory hiring practices needs to come hand-in-hand with equipping SMEs better. Larger companies and MNCs often have sufficient resources and services to help them address harassment and discrimination, but many SMEs might not, and they have very real operational challenges.

I recommend that the Government provide subsidies for training on such matters, or for “diversity and inclusion” coaches to support SMEs in their culture transition. These do not need to cost much. For example, in February, I moderated a panel discussion at NTUC, together with TAFEP, where HR and business owners from SMEs gathered and came to hear about ways they can better tackle workplace discrimination and grievances. The attendees who came found it helpful and they saw that grievance handling does not necessarily have to end up in lawsuits or firing someone but could be opportunities for education within their companies.

We talked about the possibilities of harnessing the energies of their own employee community to advance this cause without incurring high expenses as a form of internal corporate social responsibility. The Government can help rally business associations to do more of such sharing sessions with NTUC and TAFEP to facilitate best practices and capacity-building amongst SMEs.

Finally, the White Paper suggests some efforts to encourage men to take their paternity and parental leave. There is still stigma around men spending time away from work to take care of family. Men shared with me their concerns that taking time off from work for care obligations could compromise their chances at promotions or create a negative impression of them at work. One key strategy to change this mindset is to ungender care and normalise care work for both men and women.

We need to create mindset shifts upstream. One way is to expand the scope of National Service to include care vocations, enlisting both young men and women. We can deploy young people based on their aptitude in either the armed forces or the care forces. Those who are physically unsuitable for the armed forces can be deployed to care roles in the community, such as respite caregiving, care coordinators, medical escorts, befrienders, mental health responders and so on, while those with the desire and physical aptitude can opt or be deployed to military positions.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many families' caregiving needs increased. Many citizens had to quit their jobs to care for the young and old at home. Including care vocations in National Service (NS) to support the community with their caregiving needs will help reduce the stress of our people and our workforce and, more critically, for care work to be seen as a shared civic responsibility in a nation with a rapidly ageing population, in an un-gendered manner.

This is not a novel concept. In Switzerland, men can choose to do civilian service instead of military service, serving in healthcare, welfare, environmental protection, research projects or development assistance abroad. If compulsory enlistment is too big a step for now, we can introduce CCAs in schools in the likes of National Cadet Corps or National Civil Defence Cadet Corps, perhaps called the National Care Corps for both boys and girls. This will help to socialise young people from a young age to see women as equals and themselves as caregivers, giving them exposure to care work as a meaningful vocation.

De-conflicting work and care is the urgent priority to advance women. When men and society take some care burdens from the shoulders of women, women can have more space on their shoulders for their aspirations and for daughters to stand on. In doing so, we will create role models for both our sons and daughters, for a world that sees true and equal partnership between men and women and on this point about true partnership.

True partnership requires recognising and affirming the inherent worth of women in all spheres of life. It requires the eradication of the mindsets and the narratives that create barriers to women's worth being recognised. These narratives have conditioned society so much that, often, women doubt ourselves, we doubt our own worth.

When Minister Ong Ye Kung said earlier about the comments that relatives make, an innocuous comment to say "When are you going to have sons?" could hurt a girl child very deeply, causing a wound on the perceptions of their self-worth.

Because of this, mandated representation, alluded by our hon colleague Assoc Prof Jamus Lim earlier, saying that it is charity that should begin at home, is deeply patronising to women. In a world where innocuous messages are sent constantly to women to make us feel lesser, the last thing that we need is a cloud hanging over our heads, making us wonder and doubt whether we have gotten a position out of our own merit or for anyone else to have that doubt.

So, let us focus on doing the real work, the deep work that may not sound very ambitious but is important to help change the values and inherent unquestioned mental models that build these narratives that cast doubts on women's self-worth. We need to build up women's innate confidence and the work that truly eradicates narratives and barriers are the ones that we need to do, so that they no longer stand in the way of women's self-worth and brilliance.

Stop making us doubt and stop making us choose. De-conflict our choices so that we truly can have it all. If not for us now, at least in the near future, for our daughters. With that, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I support the Motion. [Applause.]

Mdm Deputy Speaker, I declare my interest as a board member of Casa Raudha, a crisis shelter for women and children facing family violence here in Singapore.

I rise in support of the Motion and, in particular, the action areas in the White Paper on increasing protection against violence and online harms.

Ending family violence and preventing online harms require a multi-pronged approach involving many parties. Men – husbands, fathers, brothers, sons – can be advocates and allies for the cause. But men can also be victims of violence or online harms as well. I am thus heartened to see the White Paper involving the feedback of many men and setting out what men can do to make a difference.

First, we can raise awareness – make it easier to report, make help more accessible and make reporting safer not just for survivors but also for whistle-blowers. Second, we can help change mindsets that violent or misogynistic behaviours have no place in our society. Third, we can rethink the way we tackle family violence and rehabilitation efforts in our community.

First, raising awareness. Recently, in conjunction with International Women's Day, PAP Women's Wing provided a resource toolkit for activists to assist anyone facing online harms. I was involved in this, together with hon Members Nadia Ahmad Samdin and Hany Soh. Together with DefenceGuild SG, we held talks to raise awareness on online harms.

DefenceGuild SG is a ground-up initiative of lawyers which I founded, following the incident of the lewd online poll on female religious teachers in the Muslim community. Probono lawyers provide assistance and advice to victims of similar online harms and sexual harassment.

However, there needs to be protection for whistle-blowers as well. We need people who would either be brave enough or feel safe enough to stand up, speak out and take action against such behaviours, be it in the real world or online.

Besides awareness, we need a network of support and information accessible to those who need it and make it easier and safer for reporting. For example, in Taiwan, crisis shelters sometimes are held in the same building as the police station itself. Late last year, France rolled out an initiative to facilitate the lodging of reports on family violence by survivors from where they have found shelter so that they can be in an environment where they feel safe.

I am grateful that MSF has adopted my suggestion on the hand signal for the "Break the Silence" campaign to provide non-verbal cues for family violence reporting. The Government also, in response to my previous Parliamentary Question, will enhance the National Anti-Violence Helpline to include a text messaging service or app, which would allow discrete queries or reporting.

In Australia, such resource websites incorporate a "clear history" or a "quick exit" button which brings the reader quickly to a nondescript Google page, for instance.

Through such awareness and efforts, we hope we can shift mindsets of our society. Mdm Deputy Speaker, in Malay, please.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Last year, Casa Raudha conducted a survey and a discussion between fathers and men at the Keat Hong Community Club to understand the impact of the patriarchal mindset on families and its correlation with family violence. A third of the respondents agreed that having a head of family with a patriarchal mindset can destroy a family’s harmony.

Patriarchal mindset and misogynistic and violent behaviours have no place in our society. A mindset shift to bring about equality should start at home.

Therefore, this White Paper is important to everyone. Each of us is a leader of our respective families and able to portray positive traits that can be emulated. When family members help one another, the result is family harmony and prosperity in the community.

(In English): Mdm Deputy Speaker, a change in mindset on family violence requires rethinking a more inclusive approach.

In Australia, Victoria state's initiative called the Orange Door provides access to comprehensive services for those experiencing family violence so that they can feel safe and supported. It also provides services for men who resort to violence so that they themselves can get help.

In Singapore, our Family Violence Service Centres also act like a one-stop centre for assistance and links survivors to other forms of help. However, beyond survivors, we also need to assist men to get the help that they need, be it in parenting, anger management or conflict de-escalation.

Hence, I am heartened that the Taskforce on Family Violence has recommended to strengthen the rehabilitation of perpetrators, including mandatory counselling programmes (MCP) and treatment, to reduce the risk of violence recurring.

Such efforts would preserve relationships and the family unit in the longer term. This is better for the family's financial and housing security, too.

Survivors of family violence are more likely to live in interim rental housing upon discharge from crisis shelters. Based on data from Casa Raudha, the number of beneficiaries who went on to live in rental housing upon discharge has gone up from 40% in 2017 to over 70% in 2021.

Further, almost two-thirds of them are still unemployed upon discharge despite training and upskilling efforts. Of those who are employed, about 80% earn less than $2,000 per month. These women face challenges in getting affordable accommodation sometimes to be near their workplace or their children's school. A new way to envision crisis shelter service delivery, perhaps.

I recall, many years ago, when volunteering at Casa Raudha Crisis Shelter, I brought my daughter along. There, she saw many girls her age playing with their mothers. The crisis shelter was nice but secluded. It is gated and, some may say, isolated.

When I explained to my daughter why the other girls were there, her reply stumped me. She asked, "They didn't do anything wrong. Why must they be here? Why can't they go home? Why can't the bad people move out instead?"

Our approach towards family violence has always been to tread carefully with relationships and balance that with the safety of survivors in a confidential setting, mostly away from the public glare.

In the Netherlands, The Orange House, established in 2011, changed this thinking behind crisis shelters. The Orange House, located right in the city centre, provides shelter and care in a safe but open and visible setting within the community. Their motto is "Not secret, but safe". Their interventions break with the traditional "behind closed doors" approach. It means working with all family members, including, if safety allows it, the ex-spouse or perpetrator. The focus is on the impact of family violence on children and safe parenting.

Perhaps, we can consider a similar, more visible and accessible shelter which will not only be empowering to survivors but also send a strong signal to the rest of society that we stand by them, alongside them. It would also be and must be welcoming to men who are perpetrators themselves but want to seek help.

In conclusion, here in Singapore, we cannot afford to sweep family violence under the carpet. With greater awareness, change of mindset and a whole-of-nation approach, we can end family violence and, with it, online harms from our society. Thus, I am glad that both the White Paper and the Recommendations of the Taskforce on Family Violence are moving towards greater intervention, closer cooperation and rehabilitation efforts amongst all stakeholders.

There are wounds that do not appear physically, but they hurt more and leave deeper scars. Such is the emotional trauma caused by family violence and online harms.

I support the White Paper and this Motion and the action plans set out by the Government. We must target zero violence and online harms against all. This is our collective effort. Men are not just allies because we are good men, but because we are all meant for good.

Okay. Sorry, Sir. All through my journey, there are many moments when I had to stop, in partnership with my spouse, to discern, decide the choices and the steps to take to move forward.

I understand that many young women today are troubled by whether they should focus on their career or plan to start a family. And non-therapeutic preservation of human eggs appears to be the solution to their troubles, offering women the freedom to opt for work and delay settling down and defer starting a family. After many years of debate on this issue, the Government has indicated an intended legislation to provide women aged 21 to 35 years, regardless of marital status, to preserve their eggs, and that only legally married couples can use their frozen eggs for procreation.

What does this mean for women? Will this put our women in a difficult position to have to choose to abdicate authentic womenhood and motherhood to technology because technology makes it possible for non-therapeutic egg freezing?

What does this mean for the workplace? How will the workplace respond? Will the workplace consider women who choose not to postpone childbearing with the freezing of their eggs, as not being sufficiently committed to their career, thus harming their progress?

What does this mean for society? The cost of freezing and storing of human eggs is not insignificant, and one needs to add to it the cost of IVF treatment.

Will this lead to inevitable widening of the inequality? I worry that maternity will soon run the risk of being a commodity.

So, the time to act is now for our tripartite partners to urgently make the workplace work better for our women, especially the next generation, so that they can be supported to have fulfilling careers and have a life and a family as naturally as possible. Mr Speaker, I stand in support of the Motion and celebrate the White Paper coming to fruition. [Applause.]

Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of the White Paper on Singapore Women's Development.

Firstly, I want to say "thank you" on behalf of the many women out there. The proposal to legalise elective egg freezing for women aged 21 to 35, regardless of marital status, is an incredibly important development. For us women, the passage of time affects our bodies significantly and our health and fertility may not hold up until situations finally allow us to have babies.

For couples who have difficulties conceiving, the road to parenthood can be so very tedious, frustrating, demoralising and expensive. In 2020, we took concrete steps to help women and couples fulfil their dream of parenthood with measures, such as removing the age limit for women undergoing IVF and enhancing the Government co-funding for assisted reproduction technology (ART) procedures. Today, we are able to take another step forward with elective egg freezing for all healthy women aged 21 to 35.

This is a topic close to my heart and I have been raising Parliamentary Questions on this since 2016. Last year, I devoted my entire Budget speech on egg freezing. Why?

In 2015, I started the Baby Joy Programme in Tampines East, where I would visit families with newborns. I brought diaper cakes to congratulate them on the arrival of their new bundle of joy. It was at all these house visits that I heard the stories of their journey to parenthood. For many couples, the process was not easy at all.

It was clear to me that, with today's improvement in medical technology, we can definitely do more at so many levels to help women make informed and individual choices to preserve their right to motherhood.

Take, for example, Janet, 38 years old, who is struggling with IVF as there seemed to be issues with the quality of her eggs. She wanted to freeze them at 33 but did not because she could not fly out due to work commitments. She met her husband at age 35. She said she always dated with marriage as an end goal, but the dating scene was limited for her as a 30-something woman. Now that she is ready, her eggs are no longer quite as ready.

Another, 33 years old, said she is a PHD holder of a Government scholarship and is single not by choice. She tried online dating, asking friends for help but things just did not work out. She said "educated women are not overly picky" but she feels she has not been lucky. She added that she just came out of an abusive relationship. Is it better for her to settle and have a child grow up in a potentially abusive environment, or end it, recover and start her search again for Mr Right? She wants to try again and she looks forward to being a mother one day. She needs to buy some time.

The reality is that, for various reasons, marrying and starting families early are not always possible. Even if it is the ideal scenario, sometimes, things just do not work out.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to suggest we extend the age limit for elective egg freezing to 40 years old. While I understand scientific evidence shows that the quality of a woman's eggs depreciates significantly after the age of 35, we all know that it has now become relatively common for women to conceive between the ages of 35 and 40 and, some, even in their early 40s.

Sir, while I am delighted with the proposed recommendation allowing women to start freezing their eggs from the age of 21, most women really only think of egg freezing when they are in their 30s. I have spoken to so many women and this seems rather clear. When I did the Journey to Parenthood survey in 2019, those in the 25 to 29 age range took a neutral stand to egg freezing. It is just not something they are thinking of at that age. They are focused on better jobs and pay, dating, clubbing, travel. The world is their oyster.

Before they know it, they will be in their 30s and may be in the situations not unlike the stories I shared earlier. Where did the time go? How can I find the right partner?

I find it a huge pity that the age limit is set at 35 and that this policy is underserving a very important age segment, that is, those aged 36-40. My sense is, even with the new policy, it will be women in their 30s who will form the majority who choose to undergo this procedure. If I may humbly ask, can we have more discussions on the age limit and finetune the legislation?

Another reason why women in their early 20s are not likely to undergo elective egg freezing is the issue of cost. Many understand that egg freezing is an elective procedure and if they want it, they know they have to save for it. The cost of $10,000 to $12,000, while not cheap, is saveable for many. However, this tends to happen when there is a certain level of financial stability and that only happens when one enters one's 30s.

A fortnight ago, before the White Paper was out, I did a live Instagram session with Dr Janice Tung, a gynaecologist, and Nicole, a moderator invited by Love Bonito, a local fashion apparel company. About 9,000 followers tuned in that night and we had a very lively discussion on egg freezing. Many commented that egg freezing is the right of the individual woman, a personal choice – a women's right to preserve her chances of motherhood if she so chooses to do.

From the Instagram live session, I learnt that people are curious. We discussed cost, the process, success rate of live birth, how many eggs were needed, what is the annual maintenance cost and, of course, other questions. But before the session started, I asked the team if they had considered egg freezing and if they had also seen a gynaecologist before. Almost all replied no.

Sir, I often asked the same question when I met participants and activists who are single, and journalists, both at egg freezing dialogues and interviews. Most would tell me they have spoken to friends or are researching on it but, so far, I have not had anyone who said they had been to a gynaecologist.

Women need to be better informed and understand their bodies. They need to consult their gynaecologist earlier in order to understand their fertility health.

I have met many couples in their late 20s and early 30s who struggle with fertility issues. Many young couples who struggle with fertility issues were surprised to be in that situation. Many assumed that the problem is only after 35 years old. Ladies do not screen early enough to detect the possible issues. Some common issues, such as endometriosis and PCOS, affect 20%-30% of women of reproductive age and these can cause infertility. Early detection can help them significantly.

On this topic of female fertility wellness, I would also like to bring up the possibility of funding for female fertility screening. I hope that the Government can implement a subsidised ladies' health check for women in their late 20s to early 30s or allow MediSave withdrawal for such screening and consultations.

Mr Speaker, Sir, this step forward is a recognition of women's rights and trusting our ability to make our own choices. The role of the media in educating the public was crucial in this. When I first raised egg freezing in 2016, The Straits Times carried it as the top story in The Sunday Times. When I asked a Parliamentary Question (PQ) in 2017, Zaobao had a half page article to educate their readers on egg freezing. Over the years, there have been many articles to spread awareness – CNA, TODAY, Mothership, Her World and many more. Celebrities, like Ase Wang, also shared about her egg freezing journey. We were together on a radio show last year and she shared her views quite candidly with the audience as well. Dr Ann Tan, Dr Loh Seong Feei and many more were taking interviews and advocating for the cause.

With more conversations, better knowledge and counselling, we, women, can shift mindsets, stay updated and make sensible choices for ourselves and our future. I support the Motion. [Applause.]

Mr Speaker, Sir, I am most heartened by the wide range of action plans to support women's development in the White Paper and even more heartened that the various initiatives to develop and support women by our different Ministries and agencies will be augmented by the whole-of-society approach proposed in the White Paper.

I would like to speak on improving the assistance for caregivers, many of whom are women and, particularly, for those looking after the elderly. This will probably be the largest group to be cared for, given our rapidly ageing population. Caregivers are emotionally connected to their charges, such that even if respite care of two to three hours is offered, they may not take it up because they do not have ease of mind when another person helps to take over. This situation is most common when the elderly has complex medical conditions or is attached to familiar faces.

Therefore, I welcome the proposals to enhance respite care options for caregivers of seniors and to offer them more help. What I would like to see is how we can further tighten the assistance framework so as to help lessen the stress on caregivers and on social workers.

Presently, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) refers caregivers to the appropriate help resources but the help would be once, twice or even thrice-off, until their issues are resolved and the case is considered closed. However, for many caregivers, the issues never really go away. Their need for help arises at the most unexpected of times when emergencies arise. Therefore, it is very important that caregivers have a constant, familiar contact to call, so that suitable and expedient help can be offered. Sometimes, this may mean just listening and giving some advice on how to handle difficult situations and does not necessarily mean that it always needs to be a physical meeting. Knowing that there is someone who will be there for them in times of need will take a huge stress off their minds.

I would like to suggest having a team of persons who can journey with the caregivers. The reason for a team is to minimise disruptions in case the case manager has to go on leave, be changed to a different department and so on and so forth. Having a team befriend them and be a point of contact (POC) for them so that they know they can turn to that POC for help rather than different persons talking to them will be extremely useful. Could AIC consider looking into this, or even to empower partner social service agencies to build up such capabilities as well?

As part of the White Paper is to call for a mid-term review, may I ask what do we hope to see at the mid-term review, in terms of targets being set? I would like to propose that a survey be conducted to check in on caregivers to find out if the team concept for respite support is working for them and is able to effectively help them in their caregiving journey.

While there is consideration of a community peer support network, the key to making this model work is to recruit volunteers who have the bandwidth to undertake such tasks, as well as to provide training to equip them with the expertise to take care of seniors. I have also received feedback from caregivers about stand-in caregivers to stay temporarily at the seniors' homes who might help relieve some stress. However, very often, this arrangement is not suitable because the size and condition of some flats may just not allow it.

What may help would be having an institutional set-up with care centres, where seniors can check in for a few days and the caregivers will be able to take a break from caregiving duties.

Currently, there are limited provisions for such arrangements and advanced reservations need to be made. The costs vary but some households may have problems affording them. If the Ministry can increase the number of places at subsidised rates, it would be helpful. Sir, in Mandarin.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Presently, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) refers caregivers to suitable help resources but most assistance is temporary. However, for most caregivers, the problems do not really disappear. Hence, what is important is that they must have a suitable and familiar contact, in order to get access to suitable and convenient help, especially in emergencies. This will reduce their stress.

I would like to suggest having a team as the caregivers' contact point. Having a team, compared to a single case manager, as the point of contact is more sustainable. Will AIC consider this suggestion, even empower partner social services organisations to arrange likewise?

Setting up institutional care centres may be helpful, where seniors can check in for a few days while the caregivers take a short break. Presently, provisions for such arrangements are limited and need advance reservations. The fees vary but some households may find them hard to afford. If the Ministry can provide subsidies and increase the number of places, these will be helpful.

(In English): Finally, I would like to request a waiver of the ElderShield payouts' annual disability reassessment for those whose conditions are permanent, to relieve the stress on caregivers. Indeed, the whole of society can do our part to better support our caregivers. Sir, I support the White Paper.

Sir, the White Paper is a firm commitment to the women of Singapore. I am especially heartened by its support for key issues like equal workplace opportunities, caregiver support and protection against violence, which have been championed by activists and women for many years.

Let me start by talking briefly about men. This White Paper is, indeed, about women's development. But I hope we can all agree that the action plans in the White Paper are good not only for women, but also for men and, indeed, all of Singapore. They steer our society towards a healthier, fairer set of norms, cultures and practices. And that is something we should all be able to celebrate.

Today, I will raise three proposals. First, we should equalise paternity and maternity leave benefits. Second, we should legislate the right to request work from home. And third, we should end the stigma against single unwed parents by extending to them the Parenthood Tax Rebate, the Working Mothers' Child Relief and the cash component of the Baby Bonus.

My first proposal is that we gradually equalise paternity and maternity leave entitlements. Members of this House will be no stranger to my daughters Ella, Katie and Poppy. Some Members tell me they feel like they know my daughters quite well now, just from the stories I tell about them through my speeches in Parliament. They are a huge part of my life and I have learnt a lot from them.

Of the memories I have shared, the ones that stick most are from when Ella, Katie and Poppy were born, when they were babies. Paternity leave was a special time, and my only regret is that it was not long enough. My factory is now closed. So, I will never enjoy paternity leave again. As Ms Joan Pereira has said, when you have twins, you will never have more kids.

But even as paternity leave becomes a thing of the past for me, I want to make sure fathers of our future get to spend more time with their babies. As I have said many times in this House, "Spend time with those you love. One of these days, you will either say I wish I had or I am glad I did." Study after study show that paternity leave is vital. Researchers at NUS looked into this and published their findings just a few months ago. Their paper "documents the positive relationship between paternity leave provision and family dynamics and children's well-being in Singapore".

Taking paternity leave not only gives fathers the "immediate benefit" of sharing joy and responsibility of caring for the newborn, but ends up having a "mid-to-long-term impact on children's and family's well-being". Longer leaves are significantly related to lower family conflict, lower maternal depression, higher marital satisfaction and fewer behavioural problems for the child. In other words, paternity leave is good for fathers, mothers and children. It is a win-win for everyone.

Some have said that mothers need more leave than fathers because mothers need to physically recover from childbirth. But this is all the more reason why paternity leave needs to be equal with maternity leave. Fathers need to be there as well, otherwise mothers will spend their 16 weeks of leave single-handedly caring for the newborn; and that is no rest at all.

A young father recently reminded me how insufficient two weeks of paternity leave are. Let me share his story, "When my firstborn arrived two years ago, I went back to work after two weeks. My wife was still recovering from labour and was bleeding and had stitches and still needed bed rest, except she could not. Once I resumed work, she had to care for the baby, all while learning the ropes to be a new mom. It broke my heart to return from work every day to see her collapsed and break. Two weeks, even if taken flexibly, is not enough. It is not just about the baby; it is also about the mother. Our wives have gone through enough to bring life into the world. Please let us stay home, to take care of the big and little things, so that they can focus on recovery and all the other things we cannot do, like create milk".

It broke my heart to read this and I hope the Government can rethink whether paternity leave should really be less than maternity leave. Let me say one more thing about our low level paternity leave: it entrenches gender stereotypes. A 2019 IPS research paper stated that "family policies in Singapore continue to signal that childcare is a woman's responsibility and reinforce gender stereotypes".

It is hard to argue against this. We give mothers 16 weeks of maternity leave and fathers two weeks of paternity leave. Mommy stays at home and daddy goes to work. That is the message we send. The worst part of the problem is that it is self-reinforcing because we give fathers less leave, they do not get to develop the skills and confidence needed to care for their kids. This, the IPS study finds, causes them to leave childcare to mothers. The IPS study proposes that we increase the amount of paternity leave. I wholeheartedly support this call and hope that we can set a target year, perhaps 2030, by which time we will have an equal amount of paternity and maternity leave.

We can increase paternity leave in phases, giving our employers time to plan ahead, while also providing a clear signal of our intentions to reduce gendered perceptions of parenthood. I hope the Minister will look into this proposal in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, including the tripartite partners and NGOs, such as Families for Life and Centre for Fathering.

My second proposal today is that we legislate to give employees the right to request work from home, which employers can turn down only on the basis of valid business-related reasons. Legislate and not just have guidelines. Having just guidelines does not show that we place a strong importance on this. Survey after survey show that Singaporeans want this and some would rather continue working remotely than receive a bigger bonus.

We have also known for a long time that work-from-home narrows the gender pay gap. The pandemic has also highlighted that work-from-home can reshape gendered stereotypes of "Daddy goes to work, mommy stays at home." An economics research paper titled "The Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality" found that the pandemic, by forcing people to stay at home, has likely led to an increase in fathers taking on childcare responsibilities.

The paper concludes that this increase may sustain only if the fathers continue to have increased flexibility to work from home. The media has also reported stories of how COVID-19 has given fathers a chance to bond with their kids. Imran, a marketing manager, talked about how his wife and him are so glad that he now has more time to play and eat together with his two toddler children. Imran shared that after this increased time together, his kids now miss him even when he steps out of the house briefly.

Sir, the pandemic has brought about a momentum for greater gender equality in childcare. We will lose this momentum unless fathers continue to get access to work from home. It is clear – we need to legislate the right to work from home. To be clear, fathers taking on more childcare responsibilities is a positive step for women's development. It spreads out the burden of childcare between the parents. It frees women from the stereotype that they will stay home to care for their children.

Giving everyone the right to work from home will reshape the attitudes of employers towards women. It would also likely increase the female labour force participation rate, which, as Minister Tan See Leng has shared, is extremely low among women – only about 80% of women aged 25 to 64 are in the labour force.

Legislating the right to work from home would send a strong signal, like how we are legislating the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices to send a stronger signal that unfair employment practices of all forms, including against women, are not tolerated.

We can carefully scope this new law together with the tripartite partners. There is no reason why we cannot design a balanced effective law that is a win-win for everyone.

My third and final proposal is that we end the continued discrimination against single unwed parents. For decades, Members of this House have been speaking up for single unwed parents.

In 1997, Minister Shanmugam questioned how it could be "morally justifiable to deny an unwed mother and her child public housing". In 2006, Minister Indranee Rajah said that to build an inclusive society, policies affecting certain segments, such as single parents, had to change. In 2011, Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary called for Singaporeans to be compassionate, to treat single parents with dignity and not to punish single parents and their children.

Thankfully, we have made progress. Single unwed mothers now receive the same 16 weeks of maternity leave as married mothers. Their children now benefit from Child Development Accounts. Most recently, we have allowed single unwed parents to apply for rental housing and buy subsidised HDB flats from HDB.

I thank the Government for listening to their concerns and responding positively. As MND has acknowledged, "Single unwed parents are valued citizens and, like all parents, are respected for the love and care they provide for their children. They are no less a mother or a father, just because their child was born outside of marriage".

I am glad that the White Paper recognises the need to help single parents. It recommends increased support for single parents as one of the six focal areas in the Alliance for Action to strengthen Marriages and Family Relationships.

While I am confident the Alliance will help reduce the stigma against single parents, we cannot run away from the elephant in the room. The Government has a whole suite of parenthood policies that expressly exclude single unwed parents.

These policies are the Parenthood Tax Rebate, the Working Mothers' Child Relief and the cash component of the Baby Bonus.

Are single unwed parents any less a parent? Are unwed working mothers any less a working mother? And are babies of single unwed parents any less a baby?

We may answer no, but these policies signal the opposite thing. Even if it is not the Government's intention, these policies suggest that single unwed parents are a less worthy set of parents. Less worthy of support.

This discrimination is a painful one because it is especially hard to be a single unwed parent. As Minister of State Sun Xueling acknowledged during this year's Committee of Supply debates, "It is not easy to bring up children, even more so, single-handedly."

The numbers speak for themselves. Young single unwed parents have a median monthly income of just $600, among the lowest in Singapore. Inflation is hurting everyone but they are the ones who will most have to scrimp and save. Yet, we deny them the support all other parents get.

We already agree on so many things. We agree that healthy intact families are ideal but staying together is not always possible or even good. We agree that single unwed parents and their children face stigma and have to overcome exceptional challenges.

Many of us felt this stigma first-hand at a recent dialogue session where single unwed parents spoke courageously about the stigma they faced. Many were in tears as they spoke. As Minister of State Sun Xueling shared after the dialogue, "They shared the pain and hurt felt when faced with the stigma that comes with being a single unwed parent."

We can help end this stigma. What we need to do is end the discrimination in our parenthood support policies.

Sir, to conclude, we need to do three things. First, we need to equalise maternity and paternity leave entitlements. Second, we need to legislate the right to request work from home, which employers can reject only for valid business-related reasons. Third, we need to stop excluding single unwed parents from the Parenthood Tax Rebate, the Working Mothers' Child Relief and the cash component of the Baby Bonus.

The White Paper is our commitment to a fairer and more inclusive Singapore. I am thankful for many of the action plans sketched out in it. Indeed, they promise a brighter tomorrow for the women, men and children of Singapore.

I started this speech talking about how the development of women is something that all men and, indeed, all of us in Singapore can celebrate. Let me end by sharing a quote from Ban Ki-Moon, "Achieving gender equality requires the engagement of women and men, girls and boys. It is everybody's responsibility."

We can and need to go further in order for Singapore's march towards gender equality to make true progress. Sir, I support the Motion.

Mr Speaker, I wish to first declare that I am a practising lawyer and serve as the Chairperson of Law Society's Pro Bono Services' (LSPBS) Community Legal Clinics Committee and as a member of the Law Society's Family Law Practice Committee.

Notwithstanding that women's welfare, rights and development have progressed tremendously over the years, I believe that there is more that we, as a community, can do for the last, the lost and the least.

The working mothers who struggle between providing for their families and in raising their children, the homemakers with dependants with no avenue of financial support, the women trapped in unhappy and abusive marriages as well as those who experience harmful behaviour online – all of them deserve the same opportunities for self-reliance and peace of mind, no matter their situation.

For the purpose of today's speech, I will be focusing on enhancing support for three types of vulnerable groups: one, the victims of online harm; two, those who are feeling helpless as a result of a broken marriage; and three, homemakers with dependants in low-income families who are in need of a stable source of income.

As shared earlier by Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, in conjunction with our PAP Women's Wing International Day celebrations this year, we have organised a series of law awareness talks centred on the issue of online harm. As a follow-up, together with Ms Nadia Samdin, we launched an online toolkit to empower all of our PAP branch activists with useful information to assist victims who are facing online harm.

During this period, we realised that many victims have chosen to suffer in silence as they either felt embarrassed and/or thought that there is no recourse available to them even if they were to report to the relevant authorities. This mentality worries me as it must have been detrimental to their mental well-being.

I share the same sentiment as Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim that more needs to be done to increase awareness and to win the trust of the victims to open up and seek help.

Apart from equipping more community volunteers with what was shared in the toolkit, I also hope that more of such law awareness talks can take place in our community. In this regard, the Sunlight Alliance for Action can collaborate with the Law Society of Singapore to take the lead, inviting partners such as psychologists, Police and social media companies, to participate and share more on the recourse available to victims. Apart from discussing topics, such as voyeurism and cyber bullying, we should also venture into tips on combating online scams that many seniors and single women have fallen prey to lately.

During the course of my practice as a matrimonial lawyer and in my time volunteering in legal clinics, I have come across many helpless women who have approached me to seek legal advice. Many of them would often begin by sharing that they are contemplating a divorce but do not know if they should proceed to do so.

Some of them had gotten married early, barely worked and accumulated any savings, whether personal or in CPF. Some may have once had a decent career but chose to give it up after giving birth, effectively sacrificed their independence and out of the workforce for years to focus entirely on taking care of their family's well-being.

Despite being unhappy in the marriage for years, some even suffering from domestic violence in the process, the thought of undergoing a divorce puts them in great fear, the possibility of losing the roof over their head or self-doubt as to whether they would be able to bring up their children single-handedly. Some worry that if the divorce proceedings become contentious, it may wear them out both financially and emotionally.

At present, the Family Justice Courts (FJC), through the support of LSPBS, runs a regular legal clinic to provide preliminary advice to individuals, regardless of their gender and nationality, on their legal rights when filing or defending proceedings in the FJC. I believe its effectiveness can be further enhanced by having a social worker participate in such sessions to assist those in need of other assistance, such as financial resources or employment opportunities, which are essential for divorcees, especially those homemakers and victims of domestic violence, to regain their confidence post-divorce.

This arrangement is currently on trial under the pilot collaboration between LSPBS' Community Legal Clinics' collaboration with the Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centre where the lawyers advise on legal matters and the Family Service Centres (FSC) social workers assist to advise on welfare-related issues.

Another most practical thing that the Courts can actually do to ease parties' emotional turmoil is to make the Court proceedings in the Family Justice Courts less acrimonious and less strenuous.

Currently, a spouse who has been subjected to domestic violence and deprived of maintenance by her husband will have to file two applications under iFams in order to seek protection and recourse for support for her children respectively. Should she wish to file for divorce thereafter, she or her lawyer will have to apply through another platform, eLitigation, through CrimsonLogic.

Unfortunately, she may not be able to afford the fees for her lawyer to represent her in all three applications, as having to appear in different sets of mention dates as well as the need to comply with various sets of Court directions would result in heightened legal costs – keeping in mind the fact that she has yet to be paid support in the first place by her husband. Furthermore, another enforcement Court application will also have to be made thereafter in the event her husband refuses to adhere to the maintenance order.

Streamlining the filing process in the Family Justice Courts and having a docket system of all applications involving the same parties will save parties both time and costs. I hope that MSF will work with the Family Justice Courts to introduce a series of measures to improve the process of filing applications, such as Personal Protection Orders as well as to enhance the enforcement of maintenance orders, in the Family Justice Courts.

Some women, despite facing great financial constraints, have become homemakers out of necessity as they have dependants that require constant care. There is more that we can do as a community to support these women.

One inspiring example was shared by one of my Woodgrove community partners, the Textile and Fashion Industry Training Centre (TaF.tc), which currently runs the Alteraround project that aims to uplift the community of women who have either lost their jobs, retired or are stay-at-home mothers who wish to earn an income at home through an alteration skill.

Trainees graduating from the programmes are, subsequently, offered opportunities to set up businesses and an online presence for clothes alteration services, along with sewing equipment that allows them to begin operations. Since 2020, it has successfully trained more than 100 individuals and onboarded 17 seamstresses.

The Alteraround project is a small preview of what can be possible if more organisations are willing to come forward to collaborate with the community to empower homemakers with skills to be financially independent while having the flexibility to look after their families.

In conclusion, Mr Speaker, it is heartening to see that this White Paper has taken in many of the recommendations that we, the Women's Wing, together with the Young PAP of the People's Action Party, put up last year, rallying the whole of society to change mindsets and advance women's development.

In this regard, I wish to take this opportunity to thank our PAP activists, community partners as well as residents who have shared their personal experiences with me and continued to participate in this meaningful journey with me to advance the cause of women's development. Mr Speaker, I stand in support of the White Paper.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the White Paper marks the culmination of a meaningful one-and-a-half-year journey to further advance Singapore women's development. Many organisations representing both men and women, students' unions and members of the public stepped forward with their feedback.

We are extremely grateful to organisations, such as SCWO, NTUC U Women and Family, People's Association-Women's Integration Network (PA-WIN), PAP Women's Wing and Young PAP, Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura (PPIS), AWARE and also trade associations and corporates, for putting forward proposals. My fellow co-chairs, Minister of State Low Yen Ling, Parliamentary Secretary Rahayu Mahzam, and I are deeply grateful for the inputs from everyone.

In the White Paper, we had grouped our 25 Action Plans into five areas not only for clarity but also to allow for thorough and effective implementation. After all the conversations, it is now the time to take action. We are determined to see this through over the decade, just as how the Government has advanced the progress of women over the past decades.

Some have shared that the White Paper only seems to focus on Singapore women. I would like to clarify that many of the Action Plans, such as mindset shifts and protection from violence and harm, extend to all. Let me highlight a line in the Taskforce Report on Family Violence, which was referenced in the White Paper: "Violence against all persons should not be condoned regardless of nationality, marital status, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation."

At the same time, we know that there are groups of women who face unique challenges. To address their concerns holistically, we have other workstreams, such as a committee which looks at residency and benefits for foreign spouses, which Minister Indranee Rajah chairs, supported by Minister of State Desmond Tan and myself.

For today, I will speak about specific groups of women who are vulnerable, their challenges and how, as a society, we can collectively protect, support and empower them.

We convened the Taskforce on Family Violence in February 2020 before the full effects of the pandemic on family life became apparent, which signalled our concern and focus on family violence. We brought in various partners, including the Family Violence Specialist Centres, such as PAVE, which have spent decades supporting families affected by family violence.

We firmly believe that, in Singapore, one of the safest cities in the world, no woman, child or vulnerable adult should have to live in fear, jump at the sound of approaching footsteps or be subjected to the abusive words and actions of a perpetrator of violence. The home is supposed to be a sanctuary for adult and child alike and we will do our utmost as authorities and as members of the public to protect those whose sanctuary has been violated by physical and sexual violence, psychological and emotional abuse and neglect.

One example of our firm commitment to tackle family violence is how we have taken steps to expand the National Anti-Violence Helpline (NAVH). I had announced the renaming of the NAVH to National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline to better reflect the scope of its services. This one-stop national helpline provides support for all forms of violence, including sexual violence and sexual harassment, in a familial or non-familial setting.

To expand the capacity of the helpline to take more calls, MSF has provided more resources to social service agency Montfort Care, which operates the NAVH, increasing the number of operators to handle calls by 70%. The MSF Adult Protective Service and Child Protective Service will also help to train the new operators to equip them to perform their roles effectively. MSF is prepared to set aside more resources if there is a further increase in call volume.

Accessibility is another key area that we are looking at. By end-2022, witnesses and survivors will be able to report violence or abuse with greater ease through new modes, such as a web link and mobile application.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I have seen with my own eyes the anger in the eyes of a perpetrator of violence and the damage that the perpetrator can cause to families. We will not stand by and watch vulnerable adults, men or women, children be subject to family and domestic violence. With the 16 recommendations from the Taskforce on Family Violence, we will act swiftly, strengthen deterrence and prevention, and rehabilitate perpetrators.

We will enhance MSF’s emergency response team. Appointed social service professionals will be empowered to go on site and jointly work with the Police to address immediate safety issues. This is by no means a soft approach, just because social service professionals are involved. If there is a risk of family violence recurring, the social service professionals will be empowered to decide on the issuance of a time limited protection notice or help victim survivors move out of their home temporarily.

Victim-survivors facing immediate risks are not left unprotected and in the vulnerable position of having to take care of himself or herself against a perpetrator.

The Court may make an order to authorise Adult Protective Services to remove a vulnerable adult from the place of residence if he or she is experiencing abuse and the removal is required for safety. This will also include persons with disabilities.

We will also increase the penalties for the violation of PPOs. Courts will also be able to make other forms of orders, such as non-visitation or non-communication orders. Public consultations for the related Women’s Charter amendments will start from tomorrow and run till the end of April.

Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim suggested adopting the Netherlands’ Orange House model of shelter for family violence survivors, for which the shelter is in a visible setting within the community.

As part of the step-down care to the community, residents of crisis shelters with low risk levels have an option of staying in individual housing units. Crisis shelters also adopt trauma-informed approaches to supporting family violence survivors and their children. However, for some aspects of the Orange House model, such as the open location of the shelter where perpetrators know where the survivors live, our assessment is that this may not be suitable at this point in time.

Next, on sexual and hurt offences. Minister Shanmugam had shared about the sentencing framework for sexual and hurt offences. The relevant Penal Code amendments have since come into force on 1 March 2022.

I would like to highlight that the trauma of sexual offences has a long shadow. Victim-survivors can remain traumatised by memories of the episode, have flashbacks that can be triggered by anything remotely related to the incident, develop phobias of interacting and being close to people, and suffer from self-esteem issues. Being sexually violated takes away that feeling of inner sanctity that resides deep in every individual and some survivors may withdraw and develop a sense of detachment to protect themselves from further hurt.

We will support victims of sexual violence, not just in the form of Police enforcement and laws and penalties but also in the form of psychosocial support and care. All Family Violence Specialist Centres and the PAVE Integrated Services for Individual and Family Protection Specialist Centre will be able to provide comprehensive support for all forms of intra- and extra-familial violence, including sexual violence, by the second half of 2022.

Our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have, similarly, further strengthened support for victims of sexual misconduct through various measures. They have enhanced training for first responders to equip them with the skills to support victims sensitively.

Twenty-four-hour helplines for student care and dedicated victim-survivor care units have been established and counselling services have been enhanced. If the case involves a student or staff from the same institution, No-Contact Orders can be imposed as added protection.

But we know that the heart of the issue underlying many sexual offences lies in the mindsets that we have in society. We know concrete action needs to be taken to emphasise the value of respect and teach appropriate behaviour and safety, starting from a very young age from our children and our youths. And this is being done through the education journey from preschool, all the way to tertiary education.

Under the revised Nurturing Early Learners framework, preschool teachers will be encouraged to teach children aged four to six appropriate behaviours around body safety.

In Primary schools, as part of Character and Citizenship Education (CCE), students learn about personal safety and the protection of oneself from unhealthy relationships, sexual grooming, exploitation and abuse.

In Secondary schools and at the pre-University level, students learn that respect for boundaries is fundamental for healthy relationships. The refreshed CCE curriculum brings a greater emphasis on the need to communicate, assert and respect boundaries for self and others, and the socioemotional and legal consequences one faces if they overstep these boundaries.

Most IHLs already have compulsory modules on respect and appropriate behaviour for students today, and the remaining IHLs will roll out such modules by mid-2022. These modules aim to promote deeper shifts in culture and mindset that will create a safe and respectful community for all. In the Autonomous Universities, students discuss and reflect on issues related to consent. Similarly, modules in the Polytechnics and ITEs emphasise the importance of respecting boundaries and the consequences for overstepping these boundaries.

Mr Speaker, we know that changing mindsets does not happen overnight and that is why I have laid out step-by-step what is being done for our children so that when they grow up to become adults, they are respectful, discerning and responsible.

But beyond mindset shifts to prevent offensive and inappropriate behaviours between the sexes, it is also important to catalyse mindset shifts so that women and men become equal partners in all areas of life, in both the workplace and at home.

In school materials, women’s experiences, contributions and achievements are highlighted, alongside those of their male counterparts, as content examples.

The refreshed CCE curriculum has Family Education as a key content area. Students learn to appreciate that members within families can play different roles regardless of gender, and that shared parental responsibilities should be discussed and mutually agreed upon.

Ms Poh Li San and Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin spoke about the need to encourage women and girls to pursue careers in STEM. The IHLs have ongoing efforts to encourage women to enter STEM fields. For example, NTU’s Promotion of Women in Engineering, Research and Science (POWERS) programme aims to recruit and empower women with a long-term goal of increasing gender diversity in STEM careers.

At the Secondary level, more than half of our Secondary schools offered the Applied Learning Programme in STEM areas, providing a hands-on approach to enable students to appreciate the relevance of their learning beyond the classroom in community and STEM industry settings.

The Education and Career Guidance(ECG) curriculum, as part of CCE in schools, also encourages students to explore a variety of education and career pathways. ECG Counsellors guide students to recognise how gender stereotypes may limit education or career pathways and to instead explore career sectors aligned to their interests and skills, including, but not limited to, STEM. These efforts in formal education complement the crucial role of parents at home and the efforts of our community partners, such as Family for Life, to change mindsets.

It is only when respect becomes a fundamental tenet that we can expect that when the children grow up, that men and women see each other as equals and treat each other with dignity.

I would now like to touch on our support measures for women with differing needs.

Firstly, on Single Unwed parents. The Alliance for Action to Strengthen Marriages and Family Relationships (AFAM) has a focal area on supporting single parents and we are looking into single parents’ access to information, alternative childcare arrangements and socioemotional support tailored to address the high stress and stigma faced by single parents.

I would like to acknowledge and thank organisations, like Morning Star Community Services, HELP Family Service Centre and PPIS As-Salaam, which have been dedicated in working to support single-parent families for many, many years.

As part of the work of AFAM, we will work on a new pilot. MSF will partner Daughters Of Tomorrow (DOT) to pilot a child-minding service for low-income women, including single parents, outside childcare operating hours. This is intended to ascertain the demand for such services.

Ms Hany Soh and Dr Wan Rizal will be happy to note that the childminding pilot has a built-in flexibility to enable users to specify their requirements, including arrangements for childminders to pick up the child from school and the location of childminding. Based on their needs, DOT will match with suitable childminders. The details of the pilot are being worked out and we will share more details in due course.

AFAM is also supporting MSF and NCSS’ work with HCSA Community Services to enhance their Single Parent Informed, Involved, Included (SPIN) programme portal. The enhanced portal aims to be a one-stop portal which better consolidates information on support schemes for single parents and other types of useful information, such as the location of nearby child and youth services.

Many of the initiatives that Minister of State Gan Siow Huang spoke about earlier, including FWAs and support for back-to-work women, will benefit all, including single unwed parents.

On housing, HDB has assured that, following their public rental application, single unwed parents will be informed of the outcome within three weeks of receiving all required information. For complex cases that need more time, HDB will provide an interim update that the application is still being assessed.

Ms Carrie Tan spoke about the housing insecurity that single mothers may face. We have a network of crisis shelters and transitional shelters to help our single mothers who are homeless and require social work intervention. While the shelters aim to help the residents move into long-term stable housing within six months, we understand that some residents may require a longer time to do so. Hence, we will extend their stays if social workers assess that they need more time to work on the issues that they face.

Mr Louis Ng suggested that the full suite of Marriage and Parenthood incentives be made available to single unwed parents.

I had shared at my COS speech in February this year that 12 line items, which include MediSave Grant for Newborns, Infant Care Subsidy, Childcare Subsidy, Child Development Account, and so on, are available to every Singaporean child, regardless of the marital status of their parents.

But, at the same time, our Marriage and Parenthood policies seek to support parenthood within marriage. This is because our society continues to strongly value marriage and having children within marriage.

Members spoke about paternity and maternity leave entitlements and shared parental leave. I think we can all agree that employees, generally, will welcome more leave – infant care leave, childcare leave, eldercare leave. And we can also all agree that any leave enhancements will need to balance parents' caregiving needs with employers' manpower and operational needs.

I have listened to the various proposals from various Members. We do not differ when it comes to principles, namely, that mothers are differently impacted by the arrival of a child because they need time to recuperate from childbirth. But we also agree that men should play an important role in their child's early years and that men should be encouraged to take their paternity leave and parental leave.

How the leave then ought to be shared between the parents is thus a function of the overall total number of leave days provided to new parents, individual family considerations and societal mindsets and norms about the roles of fathers.

I fully agree with Ms Carrie Tan's point that we need shifts in societal mindsets and norms so that couples can best decide how they can jointly take care of their new child without preconceived stereotypes on caregiving. In addition, workplace support is also important as it impacts the willingness of fathers to take leave. We should also not forget the very important point that Minister of State Gan Siow Huang has made with regard to FWAs, as its availability can make a big difference to how caregiving arrangements can be sorted out. Mr Speaker, Sir, in Mandarin, please.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] A few weeks ago, I attended a dialogue session on Singapore Women's Development organised by the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations. As housewives and caregivers, several female participants shared concerns about their financial situation.

The family is the cornerstone of our society, and women play a crucial role in the family. Around us, we see many women juggling both work and family commitments. There are also many women who are homemakers, working hard for their families over the years. We know deep in our hearts that a warm, harmonious family provides a spiritual harbour for family members to return to after a hard day's work. With their tenderness, patience and resilience, women provide emotional support and assistance to family members.

Their contributions are not directly captured in our GDP, but we know that their contributions have enabled their husbands and children to succeed and helped build strong and happy families.

Every family is unique and the couple will share responsibilities according to their situation, in a way that is acceptable and suitable to both parties. The Government respects every family's choice and does its best to create a fair, harmonious environment and formulate pro-family policies that keep up with the times, to provide relevant support to families based on their needs.

The Government will also help women who have contributed to their families for many years and are approaching retirement age but have limited savings through schemes, such as the Home Caregiving Grant and Silver Support Scheme. Family members can also show their care for their loved ones by tapping on the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme to help them save more for old age. These top-ups to their Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts are eligible for tax relief.

While the Government does step in to help families in need, we should not intervene in a manner that is too intrusive, such as to monetise the relationship between a couple through mandating a spousal allowance. This will cause spousal relationships to deteriorate, turning it into monetary transactions, with the Government acting as the arbiter.

Wives and housewives often say that they hope to be appreciated by their families and that their contributions should not be taken for granted. They also hope to be financially self-sufficient, to take care of their own needs in old age when they are unable to work, instead of relying on children who may need to take care of their own families.

I would like to urge all family members to fully recognise one another's contributions to the family, especially women who are wives and mothers, and to acknowledge and thank them for their hard work over the years. Besides expressing our appreciation, caring for and respecting family members, we can also consider topping up their CPF accounts which will be matched by the Government. This will give homemakers greater financial assurance for their future needs.

Together with contributions from the community and families, we can make Singapore a fairer and more inclusive society for our future generations.

(In English): Lastly, I would like to address questions raised on elective egg freezing.

Since the announcement has gone out, I have received many emails from women who welcome the choice but are concerned about the age limit.

Miss Cheng Li Hui had also suggested to extend the age limit to 40 years old. The upper age limit of 35 years old is pegged to the existing age limits for donor eggs for Assisted Reproduction Treatment. Some ask why this is so since they are a woman's own eggs rather than a donor's eggs. The reason is because it is founded on similar current international scientific evidence and professional consensus, which is that egg quality tends to decline significantly after 35 years old. We are making a big move with regard to providing the choice of elective egg freezing.

The Government had taken time to study the issue because there are differing voices and views and concerns about elective egg freezing, such as whether we are encouraging women to put off marriage and parenthood when women face the hard truths and the scientific facts of the biological clock. The Government has the responsibility to let citizens know factually what the medical odds are of conceiving with frozen eggs.

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the chance that a frozen egg will yield a baby currently stands at 2% to 12%. The further we push out the age range, the more the success rates fall. We have to be honest with our women because the procedure is invasive, it takes a toll on the women both physically and emotionally, and also costs the patient recurrent costs for storage.

But that said, we recognise Miss Cheng Li Hui's point that many women only start thinking about fertility and egg freezing in their 30s. I would like to assure Miss Cheng Li Hui and many who hold similar views that we will continue to monitor medical developments and international data. For women who missed the local criteria slightly and who wish to appeal, they may seek the Assisted Reproduction practitioner's assistance to appeal on their behalf. More details will be provided to the AR Centres in due course.

I agree with Miss Cheng Li Hui that, with more conversations, there is more awareness. I hope that this move to allow women to have the choice to freeze their eggs has also created some awareness and space for conversations about fertility health and cause women to think about these issues earlier.

The Alliance for Action to Strengthen Marriages and Family Relationships is also starting to raise awareness on this matter to encourage couples to discuss and check their fertility early. The Government is also looking into supporting couples with ready access to evidence-based fertility health information to empower them to make fertility decisions and seek help if needed.

Ms Janet Ang spoke about her concern that younger women will now choose to postpone childbearing. I would like to assure the Member and others who have similar concerns, that we will continue to encourage and support Singaporeans to fulfil their marriage and parenthood goals, and to do so early to increase the chances of conceiving naturally and reduce age-related fertility complications. To guard against misinformation, and to help women make an informed choice, women will have to undergo pre-procedure counselling. We will highlight the limitations, the risks involved and that aged parenthood has its own challenges.

In conclusion, the White Paper has, at its heart, the desire of the Government to continue working alongside the community and all stakeholders to support our women while empowering them with opportunities and solutions, regardless of the circumstances that they are in.

We are grateful for the diverse feedback received. And we have had to navigate trade-offs, balance concerns while identifying the best way forward. More importantly, it is time now for us to take action. Let us come together and work collectively to build a fairer and more inclusive society, where men and women partner each other as equals. [Applause.]