World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report 2013

Mdm Speaker, in the World Economic Forum's 2013 report, Singapore is ranked 58th out of 136 countries, compared to 84th out of 130 countries in 2009. This translates to a jump of 20-over places in ranking in five

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years. This itself is an indication of the progress we have made in gender equality. Not just in rankings but also in absolute scores. Our score for 2013 improved from 0.663 to 0.700. For Members who are not quite aware of this report, a higher score indicates a narrower gender gap.

In tracking the progress of women in Singapore, we take reference from various reports, not just this indicator, such as the UN's Gender Inequality Index (GII). The UN Index places Singapore at the 13th spot, out of 148 countries. This makes us the highest ranked country in the Asia Pacific region. The UN Index covers dimensions including education, health, economic participation, as well as representation in decision-making portfolios.

Compared to the UN Index, the WEF Index does not measure absolute levels of progress in the country. Let me elaborate. What this means is that instead, a country's ranking is determined by comparing the attainment levels of women to those of their male counterparts in the same country. Even if a country has limited opportunities and because of that, does not make significant progress for its women, the country's rating would still improve as long as the relative equality between the men and women narrows during that year.

As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Singapore also reports relevant indicators on a regular basis. Both our CEDAW reports and indicators are published and publicly available. Just to name a few for the House, for the year 2012, the percentage of women enrolled in university is 50.7% while that for men is 49.3%. The literacy rate for women has gone up to 94.4% in 2012, as compared to 89.7% in 2002.

Overall, women in Singapore have made significant strides in many areas including education, health, as well as economic empowerment. While we have made progress, improving the well-being and status of women is an ongoing process. We are all committed to creating an enabling environment for women's progress as well as equality so that every woman in Singapore can be empowered to contribute to her family, to community as well as to the future of our nation.

Mdm Speaker, a few supplementary questions for the Parliamentary Secretary. First, I do agree with her that the WEF Gender Gap Report measures gaps, that is, disparities between the status of men and women, rather than absolute levels. But does she agree that gaps are also

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important to track?

Secondly, it was noted in the WEF report that Singapore did not provide the figures for enrolment of women in tertiary institutions. I would like to know why that figure was not given because it could have impacted the scores.

Thirdly, in the WEF report, Singapore was ranked fairly well for economic participation. In other words, men and women participate in the economy. We were pulled up basically because of good scores in wage quality and earned income, but our labour force participation rate, I think, has room for improvement. My question is: will the Government look at a policy framework which will encourage shared parental responsibilities so that more women, especially educated women, will be encouraged to go back to work.

Last of all, there was an indicator in the WEF Report on political empowerment. It was noted that while we scored fairly well – 47 out 136 countries for Members of Parliament – in terms of Cabinet, we are really far down. It is 125 out of 136 countries. I would like to know whether we will improve on this, instead of having just one lady Minister out of 18 currently, and in the last few decades. Do we expect any improvement in this area?

I thank the Member Ms Sylvia Lim for her questions. First, on the importance of tracking gaps, different indices measure different aspects of the progress of women. This is why in MSF, we track different indices such as the UN Gender Inequality Index which measures gender inequality in a few dimensions. It is quite similar to the WEF index. We measure a few indices as well as The Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU's) Women's Economic Opportunities Index, and the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) for OECD countries. We agree it is important to track a basket of indicators.

In terms of the enrolment rate for tertiary institutions, let me explain a little more in terms of the ranking for educational attainment, one of the parameters for the WEF indicator. I understand that WEF obtains these statistics from UNESCO's Institute for Statistics (UIS). The assumptions that are used in their methodology, I understand, do not apply so well in the context of a city-state like Singapore. As a result, it has led to fairly inaccurate statistics. For example, instead of a Gender Parity Index (GPI) for Education of 0.93 to 0.95 which was reported, Singapore's GPI for Education was in fact 1. My good colleagues in MOE have engaged UIS many times in the past, and we will continue to engage them.

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That alone does not really reflect the educational attainment of women in Singapore. For example, we all know the Singapore Government provides all Singaporean children equal access to quality education. As a result, Singapore has achieved a high literacy rate for women – 94.4% in 2012. This is a significant increase from 89.7% in 2002, just 10 years ago.

Women make up 50.7% of the full-time enrolment at the local universities. In addition to that, women are now very well represented in subjects that were traditionally viewed as male domains. For example, in 2012, women accounted for 78.1% of health sciences graduates; and 56.2% of natural, physical and mathematical science graduates. I just want to give some context to the ranking for educational attainment.

In terms of economic participation, indeed, we are mindful of the need to create better understanding of the multiple roles that women hold, not just at home and at work, but also in the society. Indices aside, we are committed to creating a conducive environment for women's progress and equality.

To that end, we recognise and appreciate the multiple roles that women in Singapore play in society, at work and also at home. For example, for women who are still the primary care-givers of young children as well as elderly parents and parents-in-law, we are strengthening the support system to help them balance these responsibilities with their work. This includes gaining access to quality and affordable childcare as well as access to eldercare services in the community. That, itself, will lead to better labour force participation rates.

In the area of childcare, the House will be aware that Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) is ramping up the number of childcare places to cater to the needs of families with young children. In the area of eldercare services, we all know MOH is working hard to improve services and accessibility.

To address all these, we need not just a whole-of-Government but a whole-of-society approach to better improve the labour force participation rate, which has in fact gone up significantly in the last 10 years. In addition, this involves pushing for greater understanding of the multiple roles that women play as well as strengthening the support infrastructure like I have mentioned, and also strengthening the partnership amongst all the various stakeholders in the society.

We are mindful of the need to continue to encourage and foster better understanding and better support for the multiple roles that women juggle

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today. Just like Ms Sylvia Lim has mentioned, it goes beyond government; it is a whole-of-society approach.

Family education programmes are also very critical because they will play a part in promoting the role of fathers in families as well as helping young parents better balance their work and life expectations.

In MSF, we have a division that is called Office for Women's Development. We work very closely with the women civic groups as well as in collaborating with the various VWOs on programmes and projects to advance the status and well-being of women in Singapore.

As for the last point mentioned by Ms Sylvia Lim, we know that in this House, if we include the NCMPs and NMPs, we have a total of 99 seats, out of which we have 25 women. In terms of percentage, we are doing better compared to a decade ago. Percentage wise, it is 25.4%. This compares very favourably to the Inter-Parliamentary Union's world average of 21.4%. That, itself, is a very important indicator.

For many other countries – for example, Brazil where there is a female head of state or some other countries where there are more female Cabinet members – it is because of certain policies like quotas. We think it is much more important to anchor our system based on meritocracy.