Singapore President Halimah Yaakob has pushed for flexible working arrangements to boost women’s workforce participation and family-care leaves.
She recently spoke at the NTUC Women’s Committee Leaders. At the event, she also discussed the well-being of workers and the challenges they faced. Committed to the labor movement for over three decades, Halimah pointed out that women leaders played an important role in addressing the grievances of female workers and the inequalities they experience.
News reports quoted her as saying, “Once you’ve left the workforce, after years of being out of work, it is difficult to try and retrain them and get them in tune with a workforce that has changed rapidly.” She added that retaining them in the workforce would be possible through flexible working arrangements.
She also batted for more companies to offer family care leaves, enabling them to spend more time with their families. Halimah also added that it was time people reconsidered gender roles. “If you want women to have greater participation at work, some of these responsibilities at home must be shared,” the reports added.
