Supporting women dealing with menopause, early career stress, among PAP Women’s Wing focus areas

SINGAPORE – As Singapore is now a super-aged society with a larger proportion of women seniors, improving the health of this group will significantly bring up the overall health of its senior population, said PAP Women’s Wing chairwoman Sim Ann.

More than six in 10 Singapore residents aged 85 and over are women, said Sim, who is Second Minister for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs, at the party’s women’s advocacy group’s annual conference on Sept 26.

Ensuring that women age well will allow them to gain more years of healthy life, and also benefit their families, she added.

Sim, who has headed the group since 2022, was speaking to an audience of more than 400 people, comprising PAP activists, MPs, partners and guests at the event held at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore’s ballroom.

Her remarks came a day after Singapore announced it has crossed the United Nations threshold for a super-aged society, with 21.4 per cent of citizens now aged 65 and older.

The UN defines a super-aged society as one where at least 21 per cent of the population is aged 65 and above.

Sim said the Women’s Wing will “think hard” about how to help Singapore’s women age well by better managing issues like osteoporosis, chronic diseases, frailty and dementia.

The advocacy group is also looking to promote women’s health during earlier life stages, so their life choices are not constrained by health needs, she added.

For younger women, health issues that they need to manage include menstrual disorders, fertility issues, menopause and endometriosis – a disease in which tissue similar to the uterus lining grows outside the uterus, leading to pelvic pain and impacting fertility.

“For example, with women marrying and having children later, we need to focus on reproductive and maternal health at older ages,” Sim said. “And given our high female labour force participation rate, we should consider how workplaces can be more supportive of women’s health needs.”

The PAP Women’s Wing, formed in 1989, looks into issues relevant to women and translates these into policy advocacy.

For instance, it conducted a joint survey with NTUC Women and Family – the labour movement’s division supporting working women and caregivers – in August to find out more women’s challenges across different life stages.

It polled 2,375 women.

The survey identified three areas where more policy support could be needed: mental health and well-being among women early in their careers, destigmatising and improving literacy about perimenopause and menopause, and greater flexibility at the workplace.

Perimenopause is the transitional phase before menopause.

It found that while three in five respondents with perimenopause or menopause symptoms experience fatigue and half experience poor sleep, only one in 10 feel their workplace is open to discussing support for the issue.

It also found that a flexible and supportive workplace culture matters most to working women, with more than six in 10 saying that flexible work arrangements were the most helpful form of workplace support.

On stress at work, a quarter of respondents reported that stress, anxiety, burnout or emotional strain affects their work to a large or very large extent. Causes of such anxiety reported by those surveyed include the pressure to perform well, too much work, or long hours.

Sim said some of the survey findings reinforce what the Women’s Wing already knows, for instance, the importance of having flexible work arrangements, especially for women who are at the stage of forming families.

But at the same time, the findings also point to emerging areas where awareness may be lacking and open up avenues for the women’s group to explore.

This includes the experience of younger women early in their careers, how they deal with stress, as well as the issue of menopause and perimenopause.

“This is about building and restoring confidence for women who may be suffering from the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, and who may attribute the impact on their work performance to other reasons,” she said.

Speaking to the media before the conference, the Women’s Wing’s adviser for health and well-being Goh Hanyan said the group will launch new programmes to deal with these issues.

It will work with the Obstetrical & Gynaecological Society of Singapore on a series of talks to increase health literacy, starting with a talk on perimenopause in December and carrying on into next year.

The Women’s Wing will also work with the PAP’s Mental Health Group to train mental health ambassadors across the party’s branches to understand common issues faced by women and provide support, she said.

It will also focus its advocacy on problem areas highlighted by the survey, said Goh, who is Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth and Sustainability and the Environment.

This includes dealing with early-career stress, and making workplaces more responsive to women’s health needs and caregiving responsibilities, she said.

Sim, in separate remarks to the media, added that the Women’s Wing has completed eight “listening sessions” after announcing the new series of engagements in March.

The listening sessions are organised around the four advocacy areas the Women’s Wing adopted in 2025: careers and leadership, seasons of life, health and well-being, and safety and respect, and the first session was in April.

Most of these sessions have focused on Singaporeans’ aspirations for dating, marriage and parenthood, and it is preparing recommendations to submit to the interagency workgroup on marriage and parenthood, she said.

This workgroup, chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah, has already submitted its first set of recommendations to the Government.

Some of these were announced at the National Day Rally in August, including moves to increase support for children across their childhoods.