SINGAPORE - Formal and informal mentorship and support networks in the workplace would provide a boost to women in their career development, dialogue participants said on Saturday (Oct 31).

Around 60 leaders from various women's organisations took part in the second Conversations on Women's Development dialogue, which was organised by the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations and held virtually.

Speaking to reporters after the dialogue, Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling said that formalising mentorship programmes in organisations could help develop a pipeline of women leaders.

"Through such programmes, employees who are women in the company can benefit from exchanges, knowledge sharing and also plugging into networks, which will be beneficial for their personal development," she said.

Formal programmes to help women ease back into the workplace after they have spent some time away is also something which should be actively thought about, Ms Sun said.

"These can be done in partnership with companies because there are women who are very talented, very skilled in certain professions, and all that is missing at this point could be that they have taken several years off work and they have a gap in their CV (curriculum vitae)," she added.

The Conversations on Women's Development dialogue series looks to gather feedback on issues that affect women at home, in school, the workplace and in the community.

Over 100 conversations are expected to be held, and they will be led by partner organisations, including trade associations and student bodies, said Ms Sun.

"We will include young and old, men and women (in these sessions) because this is going to be a movement. It is a national review for us to be able to move forward together, we are going to need everyone's inputs, and also everyone's buy-in," she said.

The ideas and suggestions from these discussions will form the basis of a White Paper to be delivered in the first half of next year.

Ms Sun, along with Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling and Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam, are leading the Government's review of gender inequality.

Several dialogue participants feel that the presence of informal support networks would also help women in the workplace, said Ms Linda Schindler, a board member of the American Women's Association.

It would help that "we know that other women are going through the same thing and you don't have to feel guilty that you can't do it all, (and to know) how other women are dealing with the different challenges that they are facing", she said.

Commenting on this, Ms Sun said that informal networks could have an important role to play in the community.

These could allow women to offer advice and support to each other during transition periods of their lives, such as when their children are going to start school, and this could help them address challenges that they face, she added.

Ms Harmin Kaur, a board member at United Women Singapore, said that participants also discussed the importance of being aware of how unconscious biases start from a young age.

"The suggestion was to have school teachers, early childhood educators, be trained to recognise unconscious biases in themselves, so that they can recognise it when it happens in the classroom because it is not always overt," she said, adding that this would allow them to intervene when necessary.

Besides the classroom, mindset in the family is equally important, Ms Kaur said, noting that schools could also engage parents and families so that they understand what is being taught in schools and reinforce those messages at home.