Mdm Halimah Yaco as figure for female political leadership
Mdm Halimah Yaco as figure for female political leadership
“It is here that we aim to make great strides in bridging the gender gap and build the future on HIStory and HERstory.” With these words an Eco-Business article from August 2018 end its announcement of both the Women’s Forum Singapore, having taken place from September 12 – 14, and Mdm Halimah Yacob opening key note speech at this event. The President of the Republic of Singapore will speak both as representing Singapore, which has the ASEAn chairmanship for this year as well, and as one of the pioneers of female equality in Singaporean politics, as both the First female Speaker of Parliament and first female President. The article, additionally, strongly emphasises the role of Singapore as pace for innovation, modernity and development.
This article, for me, was really interesting, because it is more of an announcement piece than any of the other articles I have read so far. Through this, the focus is more on Singapore and its political and economic relevance and context, as well as the general Women’s Forum’s objective. This leaves out certain tendencies I have seen in the more current articles, such as a recognition of traditionally female domains (such as food or childcare).
On the other hand, this article, the fact that Mdm Halimah Yacob, President of the Republic of Singapore, speaks at such an event, does signal that the event is considered as highly important and an active discourse about gender equality is seen as positive (at least from government side).Thus, a willingness to communicate and a recognition of the importance of the topic can be assumed. I found this very interesting, as it never shone through the other articles.
For more information about the Women’s Forum: http://www.womens-forum.com/
See other Ripped of the Headlines posts:: https://seasia.yale.edu/news/womens-forum-singapore-four-start-winners, https://seasia.yale.edu/news/womens-forum-singapore-september-12-14 ; https://seasia.yale.edu/news/women-executives-still-rare-all-around-world