Upskilling: A Key Strategy to Futureproof SMEs in a Digital and Sustainable Economy
Upskilling is the key for SMEs to thrive in a digital and sustainable economy—and UOB FinLab is here to make it happen.
The Future of Working Women in Singapore
Over the past decade, women have become more active participants in Singapore’s labour force. But participation still takes a dip when women reach their 30s and 40s—often the age when family responsibilities peak. Recent data from the Ministry of Manpower’s 2024 Labour Force Survey shows that among residents who exited the workforce mainly due to caregiving, 56.5% cited childcare as the main reason, especially for children aged 12 and below. Strikingly, 95.1% of these caregivers were women. Most of them were 40 or younger, and 65.8% held tertiary qualifications—44.5% even had degrees.
While 81% of these women were not seeking to return to work at the time of the survey, the tide is slowly shifting. Many now believe they can—and should—pursue both career and family goals. The pandemic’s global experiment with flexible working proved that balance is possible. Enhanced maternity benefits and parental leave policies have also made it easier for women to remain in the workforce. As women’s presence and influence in the labour force grow, both businesses and the government will need to continue evolving policies to support working women meaningfully.
The state of working women
Today, women are getting married and having children at a later age than previous generations. This means they have more financial stability before starting a family. It also means that their professional responsibilities are generally bigger and more demanding at the moment that they choose to have kids. This creates an inner tug-of-war for women, one that is difficult to resolve. How can you balance managing a home and managing a job?
It’s not just the internal struggle. Women need to fight against perceptions in the workplace, too. It’s not uncommon to hear female employees keeping pregnancies a secret because they think it will affect their prospects for advancement or promotion. Women often fear that their being a mum leads people to think they won’t be as available for important, high-profile projects. While a ‘mummy track’ exists in the corporate world, not every mother wants to be on that track.
Even if one gets to avoid the mummy track and goes about business as usual, there are moments when a mother needs to take time off for a child-related emergency. Leaving early to fetch the kids or taking time off is often met with some judgment from colleagues, whether real or perceived. This has implications on employee well-being, motivation, and productivity.
A woman’s decision to have children and continue working also has real-world financial implications. Similar to labour force participation rates, a gender pay gap surfaces around the age women start bearing children. According to the MOM, this pay gap appears in the 30s, and often continues for the rest of a working woman’s life.
Conditions are even worse for mums that choose to take a break and leave the workforce for a while. While finding a job after a sabbatical is already tough, reentering the labour market as a mum proves to be extra challenging. Anecdotal evidence points towards a wariness of employers towards hiring mothers, as they think mums will continually take time off work using childcare leave. By law, mothers are entitled to take these days off, but some managers don’t necessarily like it. Having a CV gap also brings about a harder pay gap to overcome.
Even entrepreneurship takes a hit. Women make up just a little over a quarter of all business owners in Singapore. While there are more male entrepreneurs now than there were in previous years, the number of new female entrepreneurs have been dropping yearly.
All these factors surrounding women in the workforce trickle down into a well-documented reality–only one-third of all business leadership roles in the country are held by women.
Women present unrealised potential
With all the abovementioned hurdles, it’s no surprise that there are fewer women than men in the workplace. But not having women in the workforce and running businesses is creating a lost opportunity.
According to a McKinsey Global Institute research, getting more women into the workforce can mean a net growth of S$26 billion to the country’s GDP. If the country gets as many female-owned businesses as male-owned businesses, Singapore can see as much as S$95 billion more in its economy. Getting more women working and running businesses presents huge economic potential, one whose effects will trickle down to all levels of society.
It’s essential to get women to work and bring them into positions that can make a difference. The same report from McKinsey has shown that diverse management teams tend to outperform on profitability and value creation. Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 39% more likely to experience above-average profitability compared to those in the bottom quartile. These leading companies also have better earnings compared to peers. All these differences are especially pronounced when supported by strong female participation in the labour force.
The numbers back it up – supporting female workers and entrepreneurs results in greater value creation across the entire economy and society. So how do we get there?
Bridging the expectation-reality gap
One reason why women in Singapore struggle to become more active in the workforce is due to traditional Asian beliefs about gender roles. Women are often expected to take care of domestic matters first, then professional matters second.
Changing mindsets requires that the conversation moves from just policy and practice into values and beliefs. From a young age, children need to be taught gender equality to #BreakTheBias. This takes time and a lot of intentionality. In the shorter term, though, fostering conversations on gender equality across demographics can create safe spaces for women to speak up and engage more actively. Companies can also start creating environments that empower women to go beyond traditional gender roles.
As women become more involved in the workforce, society and businesses need to adapt and do away with the stigma associated with being a working mom or a working woman. Below are some actionable ways companies can support women.
- Provide flexible working options for working parents.
The pandemic has shown that work-from-home arrangements for dual-income families have balanced the domestic workload. More men have begun taking responsibility for childcare. Continuing in this direction can lighten the load on mothers. - Expand maternity and paternity leave benefits to allow for shared caregiving.
Online entertainment giant Netflix has provided new parents – both mothers and fathers–one year of fully paid parental leave. Employees can return part-time within this period, or break up the leave as needed. This allows families to balance the time away from work across both genders, and allow both mothers and fathers to embrace parenthood fully. - Provide gender-neutral mentorship to women.
Procter & Gamble Singapore’s mentorship programmes involve men as essential allies to women. This helps remove unspoken bias and helps women progress in their careers in ways they otherwise wouldn’t have. - Have women reskill or build skills to help them enter traditionally male-dominated industries.
Financial technology company Revolut introduced programming language Python to help employees gain valuable skills outside their current roles. - Give women a seat in the boardroom.
The Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO) created an initiative called BoardAgender, which aims to get more women into the boardroom and into senior leadership roles.
Balancing the scales through entrepreneurship
Outside of employment, creating structures that help women start, build, or continue businesses can also help with gender equity and diversity. Organisations like the Women’s Entrepreneur Club (WE Club) can help women develop networks and critical support systems in the entrepreneur community. Supporting women that inherit family businesses also help change the tradition of simply handing these businesses to men, and allow women to take a more active role in building the family legacy.
To help women get into entrepreneurship, we need to understand what keeps them from taking the first step. Below are the more common reasons women shy away from building businesses, and how to address them.
- According to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, women tend to perceive their lack of financial knowledge to be a barrier to entry for entrepreneurship. Programs like UOB FinLab help even out this disparity by training budding entrepreneurs in financial matters.
- A knowledge gap in strategy and technology also prevents women from pursuing entrepreneurship. Programs like UOB FinLab’s Digitalisation Innovation Programme: Womenpreneur and resources like BizSmart can help aspiring businesswomen gain knowledge and confidence.
- Other common barriers are limited access to markets (B2B connections) and access to financing (capital). A study from Accenture showed that it takes a month longer for Singapore’s women-owned businesses to raise capital compared to men. Women-owned businesses’ only received 1.3 per cent of venture capital (VC) funding over the last ten years. Companies can create women-friendly programs that allow greater access to markets and finances.
- Balancing work and family responsibilities continues to be a major concern. From Accenture’s 2023 Research study, around 64% of women feel overwhelmed by the dual pressures of professional and personal duties—underscoring the importance of flexible work arrangements. In Singapore, 81% of working parents emphasize the value of flexible, remote, or hybrid work in managing these demands.
- Gender bias and negative perceptions also persist, with many women citing these as obstacles to credibility and growth. Addressing these issues requires not only targeted programs but also a cultural shift—fostering open conversations about gender equality and creating more inclusive environments in business and society.
Providing access to training, funding opportunities, and network connections will help more women take the leap into entrepreneurship. However, more structural changes to the business ecosystem are also needed to further bolster female participation in business. Large multinationals, banks and financial institutions, governments, and NGOs can all do their part by creating support programmes and financing mechanisms that favour women. For example, UOB was featured in the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the third consecutive year for its commitment to maintaining an inclusive workplace. Ample and equal opportunities were given to women employees to climb the career ladder.
A brave new world for women
Creating structural change to support working women is a huge task but not impossible. The government has started doing its part by facilitating conversations around gender roles. Companies are pitching in by providing systems that allow for more flexible working. Work-life balance can be had if everyone rallies behind the cause. This is true not just for employees but for entrepreneurs, too.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, numerous resources are available to help you overcome hurdles and get your dreams off the ground. Check out UOB FinLab’s Digitalisation Innovation Programme: Womenpreneurs to find out more.
The Future of Working Women in Singapore
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