Like everyone else, we had at short notice to shift our services and programmes, as well as our backend operations, online when the circuit breaker began. Apart from the stresses of having to adjust quickly to working remotely, the staff had to deal with increased demand for our services because, for far too many women, working from home meant increased domestic stress, abuse and violence. It was a hectic period, but our staff managed heroically.
We worried about the impact the pandemic and the attendant economic uncertainties would have on our fundraising efforts. But there were many generous people who, knowing that women would be particularly vulnerable during a pandemic, rallied to our cause. What had threatened to be a bleak year for fundraising turned out to be our best year ever.

As the second half of 2020 unfolded, the gloom of COVID-19 gave way to some good news on the gender equality front. The General Election, or GE2020, in July saw a record 27 women elected to Parliament. Women now make up 29% of parliamentarians. The gender gap is still there, especially in the Cabinet, but it is narrowing.

Then in September, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam announced a review of the state of gender equality in Singapore, declaring the importance of gender equality being made a fundamental value, with children being taught that girls and boys should be treated with equal respect.

This surprise embrace by Singapore’s policymakers of AWARE’s vision, 35 years after we began our mission, was a shot in the collective arm of activists. We rejigged our upcoming research and advocacy calendar to make space for work on our own gender equality report, which we intend to release ahead of the Government’s White Paper in 2021.

We wrapped up the strange year of 2020 with the AWAREHouse Party, the virtual version of our annual fundraiser. Our online 35th birthday bash turned out to be a bigger success than we had dared to anticipate, and this set the scene for our finale for the year: the launch of Saga, the 12-episode podcast documentary about the AWARE Saga of 2009.

As we entered the new year, Saga continued to get rave reviews for its thoughtful, moving, entertaining and slickly produced account of the 2009 takeover of AWARE by a group of conservative women, and the counter-campaign that brought the organisation back into firmly feminist hands.

The success of Saga saw us starting 2021 on a very positive note. Then came yet another shot in the arm—the announcement by the Institute of Policy Studies that AWARE Executive Director Corinna Lim would be its 8th S R Nathan Fellow, giving three lectures on gender equality over the course of the year.

And so we now look forward to our 36th anniversary and to the prospect of some real progress on our quest for true gender equality—a society where women and men are valued as individuals, free to make informed and responsible choices about their lives.