Women’s Forum Singapore – Four start-up winners!

From Sept 12- 14, 2018 the First Women’s Forum in an ASEAN country took place in Singapore, allowing 700 delegates from around the world to discuss impactful gemal perspectives and ideas in several fields. The Straitstimes now shares the four winner of the Women-led Start-up Pitch Contest which was organised by the Forum. The top prize went to Eaintchat, “a leading digital food media platform in Myanmar”, along with KinderPass, Fast Track Trade and My Health Care. KinderPass, of special interest for the Straitstimes, is a business that supports parents in finding activities for their children. All four projects were regarded as inspiring and meaningful by the panel, and the women’s works were regarded as important for the future.

I read this articles as a follow up of an article about the Women’s Forum Singapore itself (https://seasia.yale.edu/news/womens-forum-singapore-september-12-14). I was, at first, surprised by the general content of the projects as the first article mostly mentioned science-related topics such as ecological challenges and technological advancements. However, after understanding that it was a contest between start-ups, including business in such an event seemed very natural and made sense.

The second aspect that I noticed is which Start-up is described in more detail. KinderPass seems to fit very good in a typical, patriarchal view of women as primarly interested in children and kitchen. While this is not das directly in this article, I did notice that the two more “male/neutral” Start-ups, focused on digital trade and healthcare were mentioned only in passing, while KinderPass and Eaintchat, focus on enabling more access to recipes and cooking, were described rather extensively. Additionally, when praised by the executive president of the international Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society the focus was on them “taking care of others” and the “meaningful[ness]” of their businesses, which to me again fits into very traditional narrations of women’s work.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/search-for-activities-for-kids-led-to-start-up

For more information on the forum: http://www.womens-forum.com/

See the first article here: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/womens-forum-singapore-to-focus-on-social-and-economic-issues