Although it was attributed to me, I did not say, 'Few men here would be willing to make the sacrifices as the lesser half of a woman PM', as assumed by Ms Kala Ananda-

rajah ('Spouse of PM is no 'lesser half', Prof Koh', March 31) This was the reporter's conclusion. He may have had in mind its sexist counterpart, 'the better half', a compliment which, like the saying, 'Behind every successful man there is a woman', is paid to women for their traditional supporting role. It is also without quotation marks, unlike the statement attributed to me which follows. That should have alerted the reader: It is not uncommon for a reporter's paraphrase or conclusion to be reported as having been 'said' by the speaker concerned.

Ms Kala is also mistaken in concluding that the panel, which I had chaired, 'implied' that 'women in business are willing to sacrifice family life to climb the commercial ladder'. The topic being about reaching the top of the 'political ladder', the forum thus highlighted the contrasting fact of the number of outstanding women in Singapore at the top in both the public and private sectors, to show that 'Singaporean women are as capable as men'. Thus, contrary to Ms Kala's conclusion, there was no 'engaging in self-deprecation'. There was no need to. This being the case, the forum wondered why there is none at the top of the political ladder. After lively debate, one conclusion was that it is probably because of 'the political and social culture here'. Belief and perception, as we know, do influence minds and create realities. The forum also hoped 'we will get to a stage where the race and gender of the politician do not matter,' only that s/he is the best person for the job.

Ms Kala and other readers with views to air and who wish to hear for themselves are welcome to Aware's next ThinkBox forum, Relationships: Women, Men And Money And Why A Man Is Not A Financial Plan, on Wednesday, May 21. Details are at www.aware.org.sg.

Prof Koh Tai Ann