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Singapore fares worse in closing gender gap

November 10th, 2017 | Employment and Labour Rights, Letters and op-eds, News, Views, Women in Leadership

An edited version of this post was originally published as a letter in The Straits Times Forum on 10 November 2017.

Singapore’s performance in closing its gender gap worsened this year, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2017. Ranked 65th out of 144 countries, Singapore slipped 10 positions from 2016. The slip was due in part to other countries improving, but also, more significantly, due to a poorer absolute score which may arise from women being increasingly found in lower-paying positions.

The gender parity score is based on performance in closing the gender gap in four areas – economic participation and opportunity; political empowerment; educational attainment; and health and survival. Singapore’s gaps are most prominent in the former two areas.

In economic participation, there was a distinct widening of the gap between women’s and men’s estimated earned income. At the same time, there was no change in Singapore’s gender gaps in labour force participation and wage equality for similar work, as well as the number of professional and technical workers.

Taken together, these numbers may imply that women as a whole earn less than men because they are increasingly in lower-paying positions. For example, the average monthly income of cleaners, labourers and related workers is $1,417 – the lowest compared to other occupations – and women are 59% of such workers. To manage caregiving responsibilities, which remain unequally shared, women also tend to work part-time, earning less as a result.

Further, the findings suggest that barriers remain to women’s career advancement and their opportunities for higher pay. The gender gap in the number of legislators, senior officials and managers is wide. These positions are higher-paying – the average monthly income of managers and administrators was $10,348 – but women only make up 37% of them.

On average, many countries did badly in terms of women’s political empowerment. Singapore ranked 101th in this area. The ascension of Singapore’s first woman President, while symbolically important, may not be a sign of improved broader access to politics for women as a whole. Looking at the presidential eligibility criteria, women remain severely under-represented in Cabinet and the other senior positions from which any future President might be drawn.

There is a clear need to address these gender gaps. Many other developed countries have specific governmental departments dedicated to addressing women’s rights and gender equality, including efforts to redistribute and better support unpaid domestic and care labour. We hope Singapore will take action to restore – and ultimately improve – our ranking.