Wanted: Corporate leaders and men on the board of a women’s charity

EVEN though the non-profit organisation Stefanie Yuen Thio set up is focused on tackling issues faced by women and girls, the veteran lawyer is adamant that her charity has more men and corporate leaders on its board.

“The last thing I want is (for it) to be a women-for-women charity,” said Yuen Thio, the founder of SG Her Empowerment (SHE).

She also believes that having corporate leaders on board is important, as companies have excellent training, leadership and internship programmes that SHE would want to tap and learn from.

“We want a very inclusive board... True equality will need a whole-of-society effort, so I’m hoping for a wider representation on the board; but they must be individuals who truly bring new skills and insight to the table,” said Yuen Thio.

She has, however, been facing difficulties getting more men and corporate leaders to commit. Speaking to The Business Times on Monday (Sep 12), Thio recounted how one man she approached was supportive of the cause, but said he wanted to make sure his own board has sufficient gender diversity first before he puts himself up as a champion for women.

Currently, there are only 2 women — Junie Foo and Georgette Tan — who have extensive corporate experience, as well as 1 man — Chew Han Ei — on SHE’s board, out of a total of 8 members.

“I’ve been trying very hard to get more men, and we need more corporate representation. I’ve spoken to some people, but a lot of people are very busy with stuff, so we’re still talking.

“The difficulty is that top corporate leaders are also maxed out on their work and volunteering commitments. They want to do a good job and contribute effectively, so they hesitate to commit. I haven’t lost hope, though,” Yuen Thio told The Business Times on Monday (Sep 12).

SHE was conceived out of Yuen Thio’s time volunteering for Sunlight Alliance for Action, a government initiative aimed at tackling online harms – especially towards women and girls. Several of SHE’s current board members were borne out of their involvement with Sunlight Alliance for Action.

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Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and National Development Sim Ann, who served as one of the co-chairs of the alliance, is now a special adviser for SHE. Low Yen Ling, who is Minister of State for Trade and Industry, also came on board as a special adviser for her access to women leaders and women organisations.

Yuen Thio said she is still talking to people to get more special advisers, as she does not want to create the impression that SHE is a government-backed organisation.

The charity, which has Institution of Public Character status, was officially launched on Tuesday. About S$1 million has been raised, which will go towards setting up the charity as well as a support centre for victims of online harm to be launched by the end of the year.

While SHE’s first area of focus is tackling online harms faced by women and girls, Yuen Thio said she plans to take a broad approach by also looking into other areas of gender discrimination – such as workplace inequality, challenges in climbing the corporate ladder, as well as unequal division of labour in the household.

SHE will not be providing direct services, but will instead focus on doing ground-up research through dialogues, gathering the data, coming up with appropriate programmes and engaging with the government to advocate for certain policy adjustments.

“We want to be a repository for women’s views generally on all the mainstream issues (not addressed by existing agencies) that affect them most deeply,” she said.

On the issue of workplace inequality in the legal field, Yuen Thio said she personally has not been discriminated against and feels her industry offers an equal playing field for both genders.

One possible reason why there are more men occupying top positions in legal practice could be because litigation is, by nature, an aggressive arena, while women tend to be consensus-builders, she said.

Given the wide-ranging gender-based issues the veteran lawyer has set out to tackle with SHE, Yuen Thio acknowledged there is a “tall mountain to climb” but it is a cause worth fighting for.

“In my personal life, I feel that if I can, today, with my efforts make the world a better place for one woman or one man, then it’s worth doing. I don’t have to achieve the big KPI (key performance indicator) if I can achieve the small KPI on a step by step basis.”