In a commentary, SMU Associate Director Jiaming Ju from the Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing (CREA) noted that women today remain at a financial disadvantage, driven largely by disparities in the labour force. Women earn less than men at work and have lower labour force participation rates after age 29. Data from the Singapore Life Panel – a major data collection survey conducted by CREA –showed that one-third of women aged 50 to 70 are working full-time, compared with almost half of men of the same age.

She believed that it is imperative to fundamentally change employment practices to maximise the female workforce and ensure financial adequacy for women. She opined that employers should assess workers’ capability based on performance alone, that the government should ban employers from requesting candidates’ salary history, and help should be given to women to offload caregiving burdens. There is also a need to rethink gender roles when it comes to raising families to address the issue of gender inequality.