The decision not to impose a gender quota among senior leadership in workplaces has helped move the needle in promoting diversity, says DBS Group D05 chief executive Piyush Gupta.
Speaking at a panel discussion hosted by DBS on March 14 to celebrate International Women’s Day, Gupta was answering a question on whether society has gone too far in promoting women’s equality.
“I was of the view that maybe we need a quota because Singapore’s women on board percentages were abysmally low,” says Gupta, who has sat on the Council for Board Diversity (CBD) since 2019.
“Maybe for a short time, we need to do a lot of positive discrimination,” he adds.
Not all on the panel agree. “There is nothing worse that you can do for women’s empowerment than [have] a quota,” says moderator Stephanie Yuen-Thio, joint managing partner of TSMP Law Corp.
According to the CBD’s statistics as at Dec 31, 2022, women held 21.5% of board seats among Singapore’s 100 largest listed companies, up 2.6 percentage points from the year before.
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Rounding out the panel were K Shanmugam, Minister of Law and Home Affairs; and Tan Su Shan, DBS’s group head of institutional banking.
Like Gupta, Shanmugam says he was also in favour of the government imposing a quota. “The numbers were not moving at all,” says Shanmugam. “[So,] we didn’t put it in the legislation, but MAS [Monetary Authority of Singapore] introduced various guidelines, and everybody took note, and things started changing.”
The Singapore Exchange (SGX), for one, mandated in January 2022 a board diversity policy that addresses “gender, skill and experience, and other relevant aspects of diversity”. SGX-listed entities must also describe the board diversity policy and details such as diversity targets, plans, timelines and progress in their annual reports.
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MAS updated its Code of Corporate Governance in March 2022. The latest edition of its practice guidance, as of Jan 11, states: “Board committees should be of an appropriate size, and comprise directors who as a group provide the appropriate balance and mix of skills, knowledge, experience, and other aspects of diversity such as gender and age, so as to avoid groupthink and foster constructive debate.”
During the panel, Gupta highlighted an aspect he felt had gone a step too far — the #MeToo movement. First coined in 2006 on Myspace by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke, the movement gained traction in 2017. While it has rightly brought the thunder of justice on perpetrators, it has also led to worries of false accusations of harassment.
Gupta highlighted the impracticality of the situation, referencing Shanmugam’s remark about passing instructions down to men within his ministries to behave properly in the presence of women.
“I think when you get to the state that you [want] to control and brainwash men [and] what they’re allowed to think, I think that’s definitely a step too far,” says Gupta.
Citing himself as an example, Gupta says he is a “touchy-feely person” who encourages his employees to confide in him about their troubles. However, he has grown cautious about doing so with female employees, which he regrets.
“I’m not giving the woman the same degree of confidence, assurance and sympathy as I might with a guy, just because I’m scared,” he says. “I think when you get to that stage [when] you’re all doing it as a society, you could be at risk of overdoing it. I think we need to be conscious of that.”
Women-centric programmes launched
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The panel discussion accompanied the launch of a seven-month Women’s Leadership Programme by DBS to elevate high-potential women leaders from within its staff.
Singapore’s largest bank will also join a placement programme for underprivileged young women launched by SHE, a non-profit chaired by Yuen-Thio, whose stated aim is to “champion a more equal society by leveraging our community engagement”.
Titled “SHE Sneak Peek”, participants will attend short placements in various public and private organisations over the span of one year. DBS joins over 20 host organisations, including the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Singapore Police Force (SPF), Grab, Ernst & Young, Shein, Standard Chartered and TSMP Law Corp.
Singapore has made good strides in women’s development, but this remains a workin-progress, says Shanmugam in his opening remarks. The private sector has a big part to play in cultivating the right mindset, he adds. “This programme will increase the exposure of its young participants, and inspire them to dream big.”
The two initiatives will begin in April.
Shanmugam cites a 2018 McKinsey report, which noted that women around the world face “bottlenecks” along the career ladder. “In Singapore, one starts to see a drop-off in the proportion of women at the senior management level. Women generally make up around 25% of the senior management in companies here.”
According to DBS, women make up 40% of its senior management. Besides Tan, other notable women in the bank’s C-suite include chief financial officer Chng Sok Hui, head of the bank’s capital markets Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, and Ginger Cheng, CEO of DBS China.
Mindsets and attitudes towards women can be shaped from a very young age, says Shanmugam. “[It] depends on homes, schools and society; it’s an effort from all of us.”
He criticises the “outlandish” rhetoric of British-American social media personality Andrew Tate, who has been detained in Romania on suspicion of rape and human trafficking since December 2022.
“In the UK, for example, schools are seriously concerned that boys and young men are being attracted to the misogynistic views of people like Andrew Tate,” says Shanmugam. “This is a man who says that women belong in the home, are a man’s property, and boasts about hitting and choking women. Very extreme — you would think it outlandish.”
Singapore does not tolerate any kind of violence, against women or men, he adds. “A person like Andrew Tate will not be allowed to glorify violence against women. He will be in jail.”
Singapore has rolled out large-scale initiatives to recognise and promote gender equality in recent years, says Shanmugam. The Ministry of Social and Family Development declared 2021 the Year of Celebrating SG Women.
Last year, the government published the White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development, built on engagement with over 6,000 Singaporean participants.
“The White Paper identifies key areas to be worked on and makes useful recommendations,” says Shanmugam. “It is an important blueprint for the future, to help create a more equitable society for women.”
While women’s development has come quite far in Singapore, the White Paper acknowledges that there is some way to go, he adds. “Women here still face bias, stereotypes and obstacles. Perceptions and practices that have formed over time immemorial — in all societies — and are difficult to root out overnight.”
