Women hold up half the sky, China’s Mao Zedong famously said. But while the revolutionary leader put in place laws and policies that banned polygamy and gave women in China equal status in marriage and greater access to education and employment, the Cultural Revolution that he launched in the middle of the 20th century did not encompass the cultural and social changes needed for gender parity.
Mao’s ideological goal was socialism, not feminism. Getting women out of their homes and into the labour force was a pragmatic move to boost the economy, not to bring about gender equality.
Traditional notions of gender roles continued; women entered the workforce but also continued to be the main caregivers of their families. The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party was almost completely male.
The handful of women in the leadership ranks did not have significant, decision-making roles. Mao moved his country out of feudalism, but the patriarchy prevailed.
Fast forward to today: China has the largest number of self-made women billionaires in the world1. The country’s post-Mao embrace of the market economy opened the way for individual enterprise, and Chinese women seized the opportunities. According to the UK-based Hurun Research Institute, there are now 85 self-made women billionaires in China, out of a total of 130 worldwide.
Women in China are also making headway in the C-suite. A Deloitte report on Women in the Boardroom notes that while China lags behind the world with just 15.1% of board seats filled by women (the global average is 23.3%), it does much better with women as board chairs (12% vs. 8.4% globally), CEOs (8.2% vs. 6%), and CFOs (27.6% vs. 17.6%)2.
However, political power in China remains very firmly in the hands of men.
When the Chinese Communist Party elected its new Politburo in October 2022, there was, for the first time in 25 years, not a single woman in China’s top decision-making body. In the 205-member Central Committee, which is the next level down of China’s political leadership, there are just 11 women.
So, the patriarchy persists. And for as long as it persists, there will be a significant gender gap in China, with women trailing behind men in most, if not all, aspects of life.
Indeed, in recent years, China has cracked down on feminist activists. In March 2015, a group of women, later known as the Feminist Five, were arrested for planning a public protest against sexual harassment.3 In June 2024, prominent #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin was jailed for five years for “subversion against the state”.4 A journalist, she had written about sexual abuse victims and spoken up about the misogyny and sexism in China’s newsrooms.
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Index, 2024. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2024/.
Note: Population-weighted averages, 146 countries. The percentages indicate the gender gap that has been closed to date.
POLITICAL POWER: THE BIGGEST GENDER GAP GLOBALLY
The patriarchy may be particularly pronounced in China, but men continue to hold the majority of political power everywhere in the world.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has since 2006 tracked the progress of gender parity around the world. Its Global Gender Gap Index looks at four dimensions of the gap—economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.
Overall, the global gender gap today stands at 31.5%, up from 31.4% in 2006. Given this glacial pace of change, WEF reckons it will take the world 134 years to reach full gender parity. The biggest gap for most countries is in political empowerment—globally, the gap is 77.5%, and WEF estimates it will take 169 years to close it.5
A study by the US-based Pew Research Center in October 2024 found that only 13, or 7%, of the 193 United Nations member states had, at that point, women as the heads of government. For nine of these countries, it was the first time a woman was in charge.6
Just 60 of the UN member states have ever had a woman heading the government. Remarkably, it was South Asia, a region where gender inequality tends to be high, that produced the first women heads of government.
In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Sir Lanka, and in 1966, Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India. Family connections played a significant role in their rise to power, but both women proved to be strong leaders in their own right.
The glass ceiling stands tall
Kamala Harris's bid to become the first female US president ended in defeat to Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Despite being one of the world’s oldest democracies, the US has never had a woman president. Her candidacy highlighted gender as a significant factor, reflecting America's evolving political dynamics and deep societal divides.
Meanwhile, the United States, which has the world’s largest economy and takes pride in being a “land of opportunity” and the “leader of the free world,” has yet to put a woman in the White House as President.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton came close, winning a bigger share of the popular vote than Donald Trump. But the Electoral College system, which gives the candidate with the most electoral college votes in a state all the electoral votes for that state, saw Trump become President.
In 2020, Kamala Harris became the first woman Vice President of the US. In 2024, she failed in her bid to become President, and Trump returned to the White House. There are a host of reasons why she failed; among them would have been a certain degree of sexism and racism. A majority of Americans are simply not yet ready to have a woman take charge of the country.
World Economic Forum (WEF) reckons it will take the world 134 years to reach full gender parity. The biggest gap for most countries is in political empowerment—globally, the gap is 77.5%, and WEF estimates it will take 169 years to close it.
Regions are based on United Nations definitions and data includes only UN member states. Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina are excluded because they have collective heads of state. Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi is excluded as her position was never officially recognised by the constitution.
Sources: Council on Foreign Relations, CNN research. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/22/world/women-global-leaders-countries-dg/index.html..
CORPORATE POWER: DIVERSITY BRINGS BENEFITS
The evidence is clear, and growing, that having more women on the Board and in the C-suite brings financial and other benefits to companies.
Study findings announced by Bloomberg Intelligence in October 2024 said companies with more women on boards in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) saw between 2% and 5% higher annual returns than those with less gender-diverse boardrooms.7
In 2019, International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, together with the Women’s Empowerment Working Group and the Indonesia Stock Exchange, surveyed more than 1,000 companies in China and six ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam). The IFC study found that companies with more than 30% of women on the board reported an average return on assets (ROA) of 3.8% and a return on equity (ROE) of 6.2%. In contrast, companies with no female board members saw an average ROA of just 2.4% and ROE of 4.2%.8
Companies with more women on boards in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) saw between 2% and 5% higher annual returns than those with less gender-diverse boardrooms.
Sources: Peterson Institute for International Economics.
https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/companies-women-leadership-positions-are-more-profitable-those-without.
Wall Street’s gender gap
Wall Street faces growing pressure to address gender disparities across the industry. Despite progress, such as Citigroup’s CEO Jane Fraser becoming the first woman to lead a major US bank in 2021, and Goldman Sachs settling a 22-year gender discrimination lawsuit for USD 215 million involving over 2,000 women in 2023, systemic issues remain deeply entrenched. The top echelons of American finance remain overwhelmingly male, with women facing challenges to advance at various stages of their careers.
Photo: Maciej Dakowicz / Alamy Stock Photo
Another study, conducted in 2016 by The Peterson Institute for International Economics and EY, found that companies with 30% female leadership could add up to 6 percentage points to their net margin.9 The study analysed results from some 21,980 global publicly traded companies in 91 countries in a variety of industries and sectors.
With more diverse corporate leadership, decisions will be made after more rigorous discussion because of the wider range of perspectives and experiences. This will lead to more balanced decisions, and better corporate governance and ethical practices. Women are less inclined to take risks, and more inclined to prioritise long-term sustainability over short-term gains.
With all the evidence of the benefits of gender-diverse corporate leadership, why are the numbers of women on boards and in the C-suite still so low? Globally, according to Deloitte’s 2023 Women in the Boardroom report that studied some 18,000 companies in 50 countries, the numbers are dismal: Women fill only 23.3% of board seats and just 8.4% of board chairs. In the C-suite, just 6% of CEOs and 17.6% of CFOs are women.10
From cabin to boardroom
Mitsuko Tottori’s (鳥取三津子) journey from flight attendant to CEO of Japan Airlines (JAL) is groundbreaking in a country where corporate leadership has long been male-dominated. With over 30 years of experience at JAL, she has held various senior roles, demonstrating exceptional leadership. Her rise marks a significant achievement in breaking gender barriers in Japan’s traditionally male-dominated business world.
Norway leads with gender quotas
Norway was the first country to implement a mandatory gender quota for corporate boards. In 2003, it passed a law requiring 40% of board members in publicly traded companies to be women. This policy increased female representation in top corporate positions. While several Asian countries have introduced gender diversity measures, they are generally less strict than Europe’s mandatory quotas.
Photo: jacoblund / iStock
GOVERNMENT POLICY MATTERS
The Deloitte report notes that some countries have set quotas or targets for the number of board seats to be filled by women. Significantly, five of the six top countries on the list—France (44% of board seats held by women), Norway (43.5%), Italy (40.4%), Belgium (38%) and the Netherlands (35.8%)—all have these quotas.11
So clearly, government policy matters. When boards need to find replacements for retiring members, the tendency is to look for similar people. Or worse, some members never leave the boards. Boards need to be pushed by government policies to broaden their view and cast the net wider.
In 2023, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) ruled that independent directors on corporate boards should serve for no more than nine years. This will force boards to pay more attention to building a better and broader pipeline of potential members. Commenting on the SGX ruling, an accounting professor said a study he did in 2015 found that some boards had members who had served continuously for more than 30 years.12
A voice for women’s rights in the digital age
Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler, is a prominent advocate for gender equality, using her platform to highlight how women face disproportionate online harassment. A Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2021, Ressa’s work challenges gender discrimination in media, promoting women’s empowerment and press freedom, especially in the digital age.
If the gender gap is to be closed, gender equality needs to be on the national agenda. It needs to be a fundamental value everyone understands and works towards steadily. Progress will be slow because patriarchal mindsets will take time to change. Government policies and practices can play a big part in changing mindsets.
Like China, Singapore set out in the 1960s to get women out of their homes and into the workforce. Womanpower was needed for the industrialisation drive. Women were needed in the factories that were mushrooming as foreign investments poured into the country, so initially, the policy was for schoolgirls to be able to do technical studies.
If the gender gap is to be closed, gender equality needs to be on the national agenda. It needs to be a fundamental value everyone understands and works towards steadily.
Women’s voices echo in Jakarta
Gender mainstreaming is part of Indonesia’s national agenda, supported by policies like the National Strategy for the Advancement of Women aimed at promoting equality. However, challenges persist, including gender-based violence, workplace discrimination, child marriage, and limited political representation. Protests in Jakarta on International Women’s Day 2024, themed Defend Democracy, Protect Women's Rights , demanded justice and systemic change.
Photo: Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana / REUTERS
But in 1983, a minister of state visited one of the top girls’ schools and was disturbed to find that the girls were not being prepared for their future as wives and mothers. “Girls should be girls,” he declared.13 They should learn how to cook and care for the home.
This led to a policy switch—it became mandatory for lower secondary schoolgirls to study home economics, and they could not do technical studies. The folly of this was realised some years later, and the policy was reversed.
The tension between the patriarchal mindset and the practical needs of economic growth is seen in what Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, said at the National Day Rally in August 1983: “Equal employment opportunities, yes, but we shouldn’t get our women into jobs where they cannot, at the same time, be mothers. You just can’t be doing a full-time heavy job like that of a doctor or engineer and run a home and bring up children.”14
The patriarchal mindset of independent Singapore’s early political leaders led to a Singapore Parliament that was, from 1970 to 1984, all male. The ruling People’s Action Party simply did not field any female candidates at the elections held during that time. The opposition parties did, but none of their female candidates got elected.
Today, close to 30% of Singapore’s parliamentarians are female, which is slightly higher than the global average.15 And there has been a woman President, even if it is largely a ceremonial role. But there are just three women Cabinet ministers, and none of them has headed key ministries like finance and defence. The patriarchal mindset lingers.
REPRESENTATION MATTERS TOO
You cannot be what you cannot see, it has been said. Young girls need to see women in leadership roles, and so do young boys, if they are to grow up without being limited by traditional notions of gender roles. Children and young people need role models to look up to and learn from.
In her foreword for the book Why Not? Thinking about Singapore’s Tomorrow, published in 2024, Halimah Yacob, who served as Singapore’s President from 2017 to 2023, wrote: “I hope that I have paved the way for other women, and that young girls will grow up knowing that whatever their current circumstances they can aspire to one day become the President or the Prime Minister of Singapore.”16
Championing women’s empowerment
Halimah Yacob, Singapore’s first female President, has long advocated for women’s empowerment. Throughout her career, she championed policies supporting gender equality, especially in leadership roles and workplace rights. As President, she promoted social inclusion, women’s economic participation, and the advancement of female leadership across various sectors in Singapore.
Young girls need to see women in leadership roles, and so do young boys, if they are to grow up without being limited by traditional notions of gender roles.
The SWHF aims to identify and honour the nation’s most outstanding women, celebrate their achievements and contributions, document their stories, and share these stories as widely as possible, especially with young girls. Much of this sharing is done at exhibitions at schools and public places.
This is what a couple of Secondary 2 schoolgirls said after visiting such an exhibition:17
“The Hall of Fame has shown me that not only great men like Mr Lee Kuan Yew can leave a legacy—we women can make a difference too!”
“The Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame has opened up my mind to think out of the box, that women can be just as successful as men.”
As Mao Zedong said, women do indeed hold up half the sky. But patriarchal mindsets and policies continue to prevent far too many women, and men too, from realising and expressing their full potential. Closing the gender gap would benefit everyone. Gender equality needs to be a national goal.∞
MARGARET THOMAS
Margaret Thomas was a journalist for over 25 years at The Business Times, The Singapore Monitor, SPH AsiaOne and TODAY. She now focuses primarily on book projects and, in various voluntary roles, advocates for gender equality and an open, informed, inclusive society. She was a founder member of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) in 1985 and served as its president from 2018 to 2022. Margaret has also been active in civil society organisations and initiatives, including Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame and the Singapore Advocacy Awards. Some of the books Margaret has edited or co-edited include The Art of Advocacy in Singapore (2017), Growing Up Perempuan (2018), Awesome Women of Singapore (2021) and Why Not? Thinking About Singapore’s Tomorrow (2024).
FEBRUARY 2025 | ISSUE 13
MIND THE GAPS; BRIDGING THE GAPS
- Zhang, Jie. “Two-Thirds of World’s Self-Made Female Billionaires in China.” China Daily, 19 May 2021, global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202105/19/WS60a4c665a31024ad0bac0111.html.
- “Women in the Boardroom—A Global Perspective—8th Edition: Deloitte Singapore: CXO Programs: Articles.” Deloitte Singapore, 14 Mar 2024, www2.deloitte.com/sg/en/pages/cxo-programs/articles/women-in-the-boardroom-global-perspective-eighth-edition.html.
- “The Feminist Five.” Wikipedia, 9 Jul 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feminist_Five.
- Mao, Frances. “Huang Xueqin: Chinese #MeToo Journalist Jailed for Five Years.” BBC News, BBC, 14 Jun 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9007v0n05yo.
- Pal, Kusum Kali, et al. “Global Gender Gap Report 2024.” World Economic Forum, 11 Jun 2024, www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2024/.
- Clancy, Laura, and Anna Jackson. “About a Third of UN Member States Have Ever Had a Woman Leader.” Pew Research Center, 3 Oct 2024, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/03/women-leaders-around-the-world/.
- “Companies With Gender Diverse Boards Deliver 2-5% Higher Annual Returns Than Companies With Fewer Women, Finds Bloomberg Intelligence.” Bloomberg, 9 Oct 2024, www.bloomberg.com/company/press/companies-with-gender-diverse-boards-deliver-2-5-higher-annual-returns-than-companies-with-fewer-women-finds-bloomberg-intelligence/.
- “IFC Study: Asian Companies with Women on Boards Show Better Financial Performance.” IFC, 2 Nov 2020, www.ifc.org/en/pressroom/2019/ifc-study-asian-companies-with-women-on-boards-show-better-financial-performance.
- EY. “New Research from the Peterson Institute for International Economics and EY Reveals Significant Correlation between Women in Corporate Leadership and Profitability.” PR Newswire, 8 Feb 2016, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-research-from-the-peterson-institute-for-international-economics-and-ey-reveals-significant-correlation-between-women-in-corporate-leadership¬-and-profitability-300216273.html.
- “Women in the Boardroom—A Global Perspective—8th Edition: Deloitte Singapore: CXO Programs: Articles.” Deloitte Singapore, 14 Mar 2024, www2.deloitte.com/sg/en/pages/cxo-programs/articles/
- “Women in the Boardroom—A Global Perspective—8th Edition: Deloitte Singapore: CXO Programs: Articles.” Deloitte Singapore, 14 Mar 2024, www2.deloitte.com/sg/en/pages/cxo-programs/articles/
- Mak, Yuen Teen. “Nine-Year Rule for Ids: A Necessary but Small Step.” The Business Times, 16 Jan 2023, www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion-features/nine-year-rule-ids-necessary-small-step.
- “Girls Should Be Girls.” The Straits Times, 4 Sep 1983, p 7, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19830904-1.2.21
- “The Things PM Says.” The Straits Times, 15 Aug 1983, p 11, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19830815-1.2.32.2
- World Bank. “Singapore.” World Bank Gender Data Portal, 2023, genderdata.worldbank.org/en/economies/singapore#:~:text=29.1%25%20of%20seats%20in%20national,Singapore%20has%20increased%20since%202010
- Thomas, Margaret, and Kanwaljit Soin. Why Not?: Thinking About Singapore’s Tomorrow. World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd, 2024.
- “CHIJ Secondary School Honours Alumnae.” Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame, 16 Oct 2014, www.swhf.sg/events/chij-secondary-school-honours-alumnae/.
