Women shy of taking centre stage: Penny Low
Singapore may have been one of the first countries in Asia to mandate the protection of women's rights when it passed the Women's Charter in the 1960s, but it still often finds itself having to defend its record in providing women with opportunities to take key policy-shaping roles.
That was one such case in the session on 'Women in the Public Sector' at the Asia Society's Women Leaders of New Asia conference on Friday, when one delegate declared that it was "pathetic" that Singapore has only ever had one female Cabinet-level Minister even though many women have risen high up in the corporate sector.
Responding to this, session panellist and Member of Parliament (MP) Penny Low pointed out that in many countries the political sphere is usually the last area to see a growth in the number of women.
"Why? Because in many cases where socio-economic opportunities are available, women do not necessarily want to take the centre stage," she said. "Do not underestimate women. They know what is best for them, how they want to exercise their power — behind the scene or in front of the scene — and they have the personality, the means and the options to do so."
The MP from the long-ruling People's Action Party (PAP) representing the Pasir Ris-Punggol group representation constituency (GRC) said she hoped to see more female ministers and politicians entering the political scene, but that would need the support of society as a whole.
"How many of the activists on the ground would choose to help a male minister vis-à-vis that of a female minister as a long-term volunteer? That I think is a critical question that we have to answer," she said.
Over the past week or so, the PAP has introduced 12 of 20 new candidates it plans to field in the next General Election (GE), which is due by February 2012 but is widely expected to be held in the next two months. Out of this 12, two are women: 27-year-old business consultant Tin Pei Ling and 45-year-old banker Foo Mee Har.
Tin became the centre of an online storm soon after her unveiling by the PAP. Personal photos had been hijacked from her Facebook page, and questions were raised about her marriage to a high-flying civil servant and her allegedly "extravagant lifestyle".
In an interview with Yahoo! Singapore, Low acknowledged that it was often difficult to persuade women to enter politics because of their aversion of the spotlight.
"Sometimes the problem with women is if we do fairly well in the arena that we're in, whether the private sector or administrative sector, there's no compelling reason for us to be putting ourselves out there to compete in a male-dominated, power hungry arena where you're also subject to a lot of public scrutiny," she said.
"But having said that if we don't do it, if women don't stand up I think we have ourselves to blame."
Another panellist, Suzaina Kadir, senior lecturer for the Lee Kuan Yew School of public Policy at the National University of Singapore, agreed that the political sphere was sometimes the most difficult for women to penetrate.
"They (women) are always responding to the political ground, and they tend to be more cautious," she said, adding that it was important for women to be prepared to take the opportunities to enter politics once presented to them by having the necessary education and training.
Based on the list of MPs and nominated MPs (NMPs) at the Singapore Parliament's website, at least 20 are women, including MP Lim Hwee Hua, who became Singapore's first woman minister when she was promoted in 2009 to be Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.
Lim, who is the chairperson of the women's wing of the PAP, was also sworn in as Second Minister for the Finance and Transport Ministries.
Low, who was the youngest female MP to be elected back in 2001, said that before her batch, there were there were only four women out of 84 in the Parliament itself, and that the number of both MPs and NMPs increased to about 12 in 2001 and then rose to 23 percent in the last election in 2006.
The question of whether the minority requirement for GRCs should include women was also discussed. At present, at least one candidate to be fielded in a GRC must be of an ethnic minority.
In response to a question from a Singaporean delegate, Suzaina said: "I personally don't see why we cannot redefine the minority (rule) to include women once you recognise first that you don't have enough women parliamentarians and you need to reach the quotas. We already have the GRC system within which we can actually use to do this."
She said there has been resistance to amending the GRC system to include women as a minority because of the need to balance the issue of meritocracy versus that of quotas.
She stressed, however, that the issue should not be about whether to set quotas or not but to recognise what are the stumbling blocks for women to enter politics.
"Identify the high-fliers in the civil service… and say they take time out for family… then they shouldn't take time out and be completely waylaid from their path," the lecturer said. "Maybe there is a way that we can ensure there is training for them so they can re-enter at a slightly later stage."
MP Low said the quota system had its pluses and minuses, but she would prefer giving women the choice on how they lead their life, whether in the public or private sector.
"I don't think that we should limit their choices and make sure they are completely represented in 50 percent of the Parliament itself," Low said.
"Whether you are male or female, what is the starting point? It must be of equal opportunities and equal access, but not necessarily equal outcomes, as people should be allowed to choose what they want in their lives. Different folks, different strokes," she added.
Regarding the upcoming GE, she said it was "okay" for women to come in through the GRC format.
"But I think many women have proven themselves to be quite capable of holding their own, too, and therefore I would not be surprised to see women being fielded in the SMCs (single representation constituency)," she added.
Low, however, declined to discuss what plans she may have for the GE.
As far as PAP was concerned, she said that the party has always looked forward to having more female candidates, but it would take a while to persuade potential candidates, especially female candidates to make the leap.
"In politics, the work-life balance is not exactly there because you have to spend a lot of time on the ground with the constituents, you have to be worried about national issues and, for female politicians, they need to have extremely understanding husbands and/or children and supportive families," she pointed out.
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