SINGAPORE : Singapore has made significant improvements in closing the gender gap.
The latest Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum ranks Singapore in 56th place, up 28 places from last year.
The index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health based criteria of 134 countries.
Second Finance Minister Lim Hwee Hua said women here have much to cheer about.
Speaking
at an SMU conference, she said achievements include a 95 per cent
literacy rate among women, and an almost equal representation of females
and males in universities here.
At the second annual "Women in
the Community: Sustaining Change" conference, she also said about
one-in-four members of parliament is a woman.
However, she added that there is more that can still be done.
Many
women still leave the workforce for family reasons. This has led to
calls for more flexibility in the workforce for women.
Claire
Chiang, chairperson, Shirin Fozdar Trust Fund, said: "Work can be
re-organised if women choose to do part time work or flexible projects -
so that she could at one time take care of a young family, (and) she
could still work to gain financial independence."
- CNA/al