Wrong signal on gender equality if charter is renamed: Sun Xueling

The playing field for women is not yet level with that for men, with women still lagging behind in earning power and career advancement. And women are still more likely than men to be victims of family violence, said Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling.

Ms Sun said of calls to rename the Women's Charter: "Renaming it now may send the wrong signal that we have somehow arrived, and so the proposal to rename the charter should be for the future, when the social status and expectations of men and women have indeed become equal."

She wrote this in a commentary published on Monday in Petir.sg, the People's Action Party's socio-political website. She said women have made much progress since the Women's Charter was enacted in 1961, but "we are not there yet".

On Jan 10, amendments to the charter, which institutionalises the rights and responsibilities of men and women in marriage and ensures the welfare and protection of women, were passed in Parliament.

A key change is the introduction of divorce by mutual agreement, allowing couples to divorce without citing faults like unreasonable behaviour. It is meant to make the divorce process less acrimonious.

MPs Carrie Tan and Louis Ng, who are both from Nee Soon GRC, had proposed renaming the Women's Charter the Family Charter.

Mr Ng noted that the charter protects not only women and children, but also married men.

He said in Parliament: "There is a rising incorrect sentiment that the Women's Charter is bad for men... Renaming the Women's Charter to accurately describe its scope can help defuse the anger."

In her commentary, Ms Sun said: "We are also generally moving towards greater equality between the sexes, though this may not be immediately obvious."

With the amendments, the courts will have greater powers to better enforce child access orders when parents deny their former spouses time spent with the children post-divorce.

Ms Sun said that during her Meet-the-People Sessions, those who faced problems getting access to their children post-divorce were almost always the fathers.

She said the boost to the child access enforcement regime inadvertently helps one gender more than the other, but that does not make the Women's Charter gender-biased.

When it comes to spousal maintenance, the reality is that it is more likely for the wife to give up her career for her family, and thus women are more likely to be financially dependent after divorce, she said.

Ms Sun also noted that a divorced woman is not granted maintenance as a matter of right. If the courts assess that she has enough financial resources, it can decide not to grant her any maintenance.

She noted that incapacitated husbands can also claim maintenance from their wives or former wives.