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Singapore ranked 12th in attitudes on gender equality, after China and Hong Kong: YouGov

SINGAPORE — About four in 10 of women in Singapore agree that a wife’s first role is to look after her husband and that it is likely to cause problems if a woman earns more money than her husband, according to a global report on attitudes on gender equality.

SINGAPORE — About four in 10 of women in Singapore agree that a wife’s first role is to look after her husband and that it is likely to cause problems if a woman earns more money than her husband, according to a global report on attitudes on gender equality.

This is slightly lower than the Asia Pacific (APAC) average of more than 40 per cent, but higher than the global average of female respondents who agreed with these two statements.

From among 24 countries, Singapore has been ranked 12th in gender equality attitudes in a survey conducted by market research firm YouGov. The findings were released on Thursday (Nov 12). 26,364 respondents from the 24 countries were polled, of which 1,629 were men and women from Singapore.

Respondents were asked 14 questions, 10 of which were statements about gender equality requiring an agree/disagree response. Four questions represented views about gender roles that would be considered conservative — such as “it is attractive for women to express strong opinions in public” — while six questions represented views considered progressive in relation to the conservative statements. The rankings were then based on an aggregation of the net responses to all 10 statements for each country.

The Nordic countries mostly outperformed the rest of the countries, with Sweden taking top spot. This was followed by Finland and Denmark. The findings here were not surprising, and YouGov noted that in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, Nordic countries have the highest levels of equality worldwide.

Singapore’s middle ranking places it after China (10th) and Hong Kong (11th) but ahead of ASEAN neighbours such as Thailand (13th), Indonesia (14th) and Malaysia (15th). Ahead of Singapore were also countries like Australia (4th), the United States (9th) and Britain (7th).

Other survey results included the findings that a higher percentage of women and men in Singapore agree that a women’s place is in the home — 22 per cent of women, and 28 per cent of men. The APAC average was 17 per cent for women and 27 per cent for men, while the global average was 12 per cent for women and 18 per cent for men.

Still, more than nine in 10 women and more than eight in 10 men agree that it is good for women to make a career of their own, in line with the global average.

A bigger proportion of Singapore respondents, compared to the global average, also agreed that creating more opportunity for women should be one of the world’s top concerns.

But while the majority of Singapore respondents agreed that men and women are equal, and that men and women are equally intelligent, close to 40 per cent of respondents here want a man as boss, compared to 7 per cent of respondents preferring a female boss.

More findings can be seen in the chart below or click here if it's not loading properly.

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