It's Still Hard Being A Woman In The Workplace

A few months ago, Her World partnered with market research firm Milieu Insight to find out more about the other types of discrimination female employees face at work. These are the findings from our What Women Want survey.

- Adora Wong

Picture gender inequality in the workplace and the first thing that comes to mind is probably the gender pay gap. After all, it’s still considerably problematic. In January last year, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released a report detailing the gender pay gap in Singapore. It found that in 2018, the unadjusted pay gap was at 16.3 per cent. The adjusted pay gap was at 6 per cent or $324 a month.

And while the study noted that the gap in Singapore is lesser than the latest available figures from countries such as the United States (8 per cent), Canada (7.7 per cent to 8.3 per cent) and China (18.3 per cent), the World Economic Forum ranked Singapore at 54th place on its 2020 Global Gender Gap Index.

But here’s the thing: Inequality in the workplace extends beyond pay – there are several other aspects to it that are hardly talked about. Here are six of the top struggles women still face at work.

I was afraid to report sexual harassment because I wasn’t sure of the repercussions.

According to our survey, close to a quarter of respondents have either been a victim or witness to sexual harassment in the workplace. The results are in line with findings by the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware).

In January this year, Aware and market research firm Ipsos released results of a nationally representative survey that included both genders. When asked, “Have you been sexually harassed in the workplace within the last five years?”, one in five responded in the affirmative.