We announced the winners of our annual AWARE Awards, Singapore’s only gender equality awards, yesterday at AWARE’s Big Red Ball.

AWARE Award winners always stand out in their fields, shining examples of what one can achieve through dedicated work and a passion for doing what’s right. Each year, we present the AWARE Awardsto individuals and organisations doing exceptional work to further gender equality.

This year’s AWARE Heroine Awards were given to domestic violence survivor, Rachel Chung and veteran social activist, Constance Singam.

AWARE Awards were also presented to Accenture as Corporation of the Year, for consistently and actively encouraging female leadership and empowering women in the workplace.

The Singapore University of Technology and Design won the award for Cause of the Year (Education), for attracting female students and achieving a balanced male-female cohort, an achievement few engineering schools can boast of.

Lastly, the Financial Women’s Association’s mentoring programme was named Initiative of the Year for adopting a professional and robust approach in a mentoring programme connecting younger members with senior members to develop their careers.

AWARE also declared the winner of the annual ALAMAK! Award, our tongue-in-cheek tribute to the most excruciating example of sexism over the past year.

Candidates are nominated by the public, with the “winner” chosen through online voting.

With 61 per cent of the vote, the recent wig saga at St. Margaret’s Secondary School emerged the winner of the Alamak! Award 2013. Last month, Principal Marion Tan sparked the ire of the public when she demanded that students who had shaved their heads for cancer awareness wear wigs to hide their baldness.

The AWARE Awards and ALAMAK! Award will be back next year!