SHE & NTUC UWAF launches SHE Supports | 2 March 2024
2 March 2024—Ahead of International Women’s Day, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) U Women and Family (U WAF) launched SHE Supports, a new initiative in collaboration with SG Her Empowerment (SHE).
SHE Supports will offer resources such as legal clinics and training to support individuals looking to return to work, and those seeking to juggle caregiving responsibilities and work obligations. Another key feature of SHE Supports is its mentorship circles, which aims to bring women together on a regular basis to share experiences and learnings, encourage and uplift one another, and discuss topics relevant to their journeys as women and caregivers. The mentorship circles, which are an extension of the one-to-one mentorship offered through the WSW Mentorship Programme, will also harness the strengths of established women leaders, domain experts, and other resources to provide larger support for women.
SHE Supports was built in response to the conclusion of NTUC’s year-long #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations (#EWMC) in 2023, which revealed that balancing multiple responsibilities both at home and at the workplace was a top concern among workers. Through a series of engagements, #EWMC found that women workers were five times more likely than men to be managing housework and caregiving responsibilities in dual-income households, and nearly four times more likely to have left their jobs for caregiving than men. As demand for caregiving increases, women – who already bear a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities – will be most impacted, facing additional strain. The findings from #EWMC underscores a pressing need to support caregivers in managing their dual responsibilities in caregiving and work. SHE Supports aims to provide relevant resources to support women and caregivers, thereby alleviating the load of caregiving.
SHE Supports was launched at To-Gather: Power of Women, an event organised by U WAF. Held over two days from 2 March to 3 March 2024, the event was organised in
conjunction with International Women’s Month and included a panel discussion with Ms Yeo Wan Ling, Assistant Secretary-General of NTUC, Director of NTUC U Women & Family; Ms Stefanie Yuen Thio, Chairperson, SG Her Empowerment; and Mr Edy Tan, PBM, Chief Executive Officer of Chye Thiam Maintenance Pte Ltd. The panel, which was moderated by NTUC Women’s Committee Co-Chairperson Ms Noorfarahin Bte Ahmad, discussed the empowerment, solidarity and strength of womanhood. The panellists also emphasised the collective efforts to better support women returners and caregivers in the workforce through incorporating flexible work arrangements and redesigning organisational work processes and culture.
NTUC Assistant Secretary-General and Director of U WAF Yeo Wan Ling said, “At NTUC U Women and Family, we aim to empower women workers to achieve their goals.
Through our programmes, we have built an ecosystem to support them so that they can return to work while balancing responsibilities at home with a peace of mind. SHE Supports is a collaboration we are excited about because it brings in more resources to help women achieve their career goals. Expanding our WSW Mentorship Programme into mentorship circles is one where other professionals and lawyers join our union and grassroots mentors in supporting, guiding and mentoring our women returners. Through these efforts, we want to empower women to thrive in their diverse roles both at home and in the workforce.”
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The event also featured a progressive career fair with seven employers offering over 1,000 flexible work and part-time positions for individuals and caregivers across 53 job roles. To support our caregivers at the event, childminding services as well as kids craft workshops were also available. Attendees were also invited to visit booths, which offered professional styling and makeover, as well as resources for women returners such as corporate wear donated by women professionals through SHE.
SHE was busy running a booth sharing information about our various activities, as well as a pro bono legal clinic, where lawyers from TSMP Law Corporation generously volunteered to offer attendees guidance on their workplace or employment concerns.
SHE CEO Simran Toor also gave a presentation about our work with online harms and SHECARES@SCWO, our dedicated centre for victims of online harms.
We are also very grateful to Ms Sim Ann , Senior Minister of State (SMS) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Development, who came by to show her support and encouragement for SHE's projects!
