Hour Glass partners non-profit SCWO for Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame exhibition
The roving exhibition is being held in the heartlands to increase engagement among the community
WAR heroine Elisabeth Choy; Singapore’s first female president Halimah Yacob; and the first Asian female executive at Standard Chartered Bank, Theresa Foo.
These women may have entered Singapore’s annals at different times but the common thread they share is that they have contributed to the country in their own ways.
Today, these women are among the 192 who have been inducted into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame.
The event is staged by non-profit organisation Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO), with the support of luxury watch retail group The Hour Glass. It is making its way through the heartlands in Singapore, with the last pit stop being Tampines Regional Library in February.
The exhibition was on display at Woodlands Regional Library from Dec 2 to 29, before moving to Ang Mo Kio Public Library in January. It was launched to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hall of Fame.
Koh Yan Ping, chief executive of SCWO, said: “For the 10-year anniversary (of the Hall of Fame), we wanted to bring the content – particularly the stories behind the women in the Hall of Fame – to the heartlands, because we wanted to engage with the community more and make it more accessible… The aim is to showcase the women who have contributed to Singapore from the nation-building years until the present.”
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The inductees come from all fields and industries. They include outstanding women in advocacy and activism, business and enterprise, and politics and government.
“Their achievements are in many different areas. These are important messages that we are trying to send to society to change the mindset surrounding what women can or cannot do,” Koh added.
Besides the Hall of Fame, the exhibition has a section called “The Lives of Women”, which examines what life has been like for women in Singapore over the decades since it became an independent nation. It looks at women’s progress in education, the workplace, public life and society.
Said Koh: “Coincidentally, this is the year of SG60. It is timely to look at how women have progressed through that 60-year lens.”
For the 10th anniversary of the Hall of Fame, the exhibition includes a section called “Hidden Heroes” to highlight the contributions of women in the community. These can be nurses, hawkers, or even family members. The public is invited to submit entries to be featured in this section.
Koh noted: “We want to also capture the stories of ordinary women who have been silently contributing to society, the community, their home and family.”
Corporate partnerships
The Hour Glass and SCWO started their partnership in late 2023.
Michael Tay, group managing director of The Hour Glass, said: “At The Hour Glass, we are dedicated to nurturing and celebrating excellence, innovation and leadership across all spheres of society. This aligns seamlessly with our commitment to recognising and supporting initiatives that amplify stories of inspiration and resilience.”
Their tie-up is mainly focused on the Hall of Fame exhibition and Project Awesome, another SCWO initiative.
Koh said: “We use Project Awesome as a way to go to schools or work with various community partners to engage with children and share with them all the values – the different types of resilience and perseverance – and the kind of stories that (the Hall of Fame inductees) have to try and inspire them.”
She highlighted the importance of corporate partnerships to amplify the work that non-profit organisations such as SCWO do.
“Without the support of our partner The Hour Glass, it would have been very challenging for us to set up an exhibition like this and have it rove around… Such partners see the value in working with SCWO because they also believe strongly in the message behind the Women’s Hall of Fame – particularly the outreach that we are doing to the younger generation.”
Some companies have asked SCWO to bring a smaller-scale version of the exhibition to their workplace or run dialogue sessions about female leadership and empowerment.
Koh said SCWO continues to actively seek corporate partners for its other initiatives, including a crisis shelter and programme to help women become board directors.
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