INTRODUCTION

It is my great pleasure to join you tonight in celebrating the International Women's Day.

Today we have many women who have stepped out of conventional boundaries and have become movers and shakers. Women's status has indeed been significantly improved over the past 20 years. Women have better control of their lives now and could pursue careers of their choices. And we have women here today who are in key positions in the public sector, as well as in the corporate world.

But is it really all hunky-dory? Well, let me tell you a story about the impressions of a young mind. On my trip to Brunei for the last APEC Women Leaders' Network meeting, my husband and my 10 year old son went with me. On the flight going there, my son asked what I would be doing there and I explained. He proceeded to give me his perspective of the world. He said, "I think women are less suited to being leaders than men. There are so few of them around!" Well he observed and surveyed the scene on women leaders and applied logic in reverse. You see fewer of them and therefore they are not as good. What the young minds find visible or not visible in a society creates enormous impact on them. We need clear visible role models. It is only when kids see these role models that they feel they can make it and that persons of the opposite sex or with a disability or of a different colour can also make it.

I therefore salute Mrs. Chan and all of you in Hong Kong as role models, as decision makers, as career women, wives and as mothers for making your choices clear. The statement must be made. The fact that we have an International Women's Day speaks for itself. My salute also goes to the men who have supported the women in their lives in making those choices.

EDUCATION

Women in Hong Kong have indeed come a long way. One of the most significant measures in the empowerment of women in Hong Kong is the requirement for nine-year compulsory education since the 70's. Back in 1971, about 36% of women over the age of 15 had received no schooling or only kindergarten education (Note 1). By 1999, this figure was reduced to 12.6%. Although women still fall behind in science and technology subjects and post-graduate programmes, the 1996 census figures on gender ratio in schools show near equality in terms of numbers in primary and secondary school enrolment. In full-time tertiary institutions, women's enrolment figure even slightly exceeds that of men.

In China in 1997, 45.5% of students in high schools were female. For colleges and graduate schools, female students accounted for 37.3% and 30.4% respectively of the student population (Note 2). Among the children who dropped out, girls comprise almost 70 per cent of total dropouts. Family financial difficulties are the primary cause of school girls dropping out (Note 3).

Education is a great equalizer. Many studies have shown that as mothers become better educated, the health and education of their children also improve. Many top economists now consider money spent on educating girls as the best investment for development because women is an agent of change. In the Philippines, studies have shown that families whose household incomes derive from women are less under nourished. In the Ivory Coast, it was found that if women had as much control as men over cash income, the amount spent on food would go up by 9% while spending on cigarettes would fall by 55% and on alcohol by 99%. This is why the ADB in its aid programme for Indonesia required the educational loan be spent equally between girls and boys.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Besides education, information technology will be another major empowering factor in the coming decades. Anyone who has recently visited major cities of China will have seen young Mainlanders, bright, enterprising and eager to take on the world. Many of them are computer-literate and web-users. They eagerly adopt bulletin boards and chat rooms to express themselves and exchange ideas. They have access to information and events that do not appear in the official press. This has made them attuned to what is happening around the country and the world. China already has 51 million mobile-phone users (note 4), and as wireless technology develops, China will soon have one of the world's largest group of wireless Internet users.

According to a 2000 web study by the Angus Reid Group, a global market and social research company, 35% of the Hong Kong population used the Internet in 2000 while the percentage for Urban China Mainland was 12%. The percentage for the U.S. was 59 % and for Japan, 33% (Note 5). About 59% of Internet users in 2000 are male and 41% female; however, for people who intend to go online in a year, an estimated 54% will be female and 46% male (also Note 5).

Some say that the New Economy is the shift from manufacturing to services, the speed up of technological innovation, the increasing importance of "knowledge" in creating wealth. In the New Economy, we say knowledge based work is genderless and we know this New Economy is being propelled by the spread of information technology.

Many women in Hong Kong cannot enjoy what knowledge IT is offering, because of a lack of exposure and training in IT, a lower level of education and a lack of English skills. Some women have no access to the Internet because they do not have basic computer know-how or credit cards with which to set up Internet accounts and they know very little English whereas 80% of the information on the web is in English.

A recent HKU survey showed far fewer female students have confidence in using IT (1:10). This is going to put young women at a disadvantage in both learning and employment.

We know "IT" is a double-edged sword. It can help women to narrow the gap or create a wider divide for them. Its impact on women cannot be ignored and we need an unequivocal commitment from government to make IT accessible to women.

For the significant number of women who are confined to their homes, IT also offers the potential to help them develop new careers at home. The promotion of the Small Office Home Office (SOHO) concept can open new avenues for women. It no longer requires production lines to compete, just ideas.

I was told that a rural woman in Africa started using a computer to track farm produce prices for farmers to help them sell at better prices. It started with an idea. It became a business and it is helping a lot of farmers.

CAPITAL AND CREDIT

Now, I would like to talk about money.

A 1995 New Zealand case report had this to say about women and money:

"The complainant alleged, and the bank admitted, that her husband telephoned her bank to obtain the balance of their joint cheque account. He also requested and was given the balances of the complainant's personal accounts. Information Privacy principle 11 places limits on the disclosure of information. The bank admitted the wrongful disclosure and apologized, but the complainant was not satisfied because she alleged that the disclosure led to an argument between herself and her husband which resulted in him assaulting her."

The bank ultimately paid NZ$500 as compensation. The disclosure was inadvertent and the employee who caused the problem was spoken to about the matter.

I guess the employee didn't think that either banks or wives had secrets to keep. And a matrimonial discord erupted when the husband found out that the wife had money.

Women have trouble getting credit cards or borrowing money from banks with which to start small businesses, although women are in fact incredibly good repayers. Government and banks should look into how to provide women with access to credit. With the talk about bank charging small depositors, there is every reason in the world for enterprising women to start a women's bank, or to provide stored value cards with which grassroot women can establish internet accounts for purchases.

There are also new ways to spend public dollars to stimulate the economy so that women can benefit. Most governments put their money in the construction and infrastructure industries during recession; these mainly benefit the male work force. The government should consider spending money on female-dominated jobs as well as training programmes and small loans for women.

Legislation

I would like to conclude with another milestone for women in Hong Kong and that is the promulgation of the Sex Discrimination Ordinance in 1995. Without the law, it would have been impossible to require government and the corporate world to change their policies. I am glad to see that the Women's Commission will play the role of co-ordinating policies relating to women.

Women in Hong Kong and Mainland can help each other by sharing experiences and networking into a significant fora in the economic, cultural and social life in the region and be an agent of change.

Thank you.

Notes:
p.67 in "Breaking New Ground: Promoting Equal Opportunities in Hong Kong", published by the EOC in 1999
Information extracted from "Women's education in China" in the website of All-China Women's Federation (www.women.org.cn/womenorg/English/English/education.htm).
Information extracted from "The Spring Bud Plan" in the website of All-China Women's Federation (www.women.org.cn/womenorg/English/English/springbud.htm).
Information from "The Ranks of Revolutionaries" in Time Magazine (Asia Edition), 23 October 2000
From media release on "The Face of the Web" study (www.angusreid.com/media)

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