INTRODUCTION

It is my great pleasure to join you today in celebrating your installation. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the new executive committee and extend to you my best wishes.

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 a 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, 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 and others can make it too.

Female role models

I therefore salute the women in Hong Kong who have become role models in today's world. They are leaders in the truest sense, for instance, Dr. Ellen Li, who became the first female Legislative Councillor in 1965; Ms. Helen Lo, who was appointed the first female judge of the District Court in 1986; and of course, Mrs. Anson Chan, the first woman to head the civil service from 1993 to 2001 and Ms Elsie Leung, the first Secretary for Justice.

My salute also goes to women who are role models in their own fields, such as the many members of the Zonta Club. You have made significant contribution to your spheres of influence, as decision makers, as career women, and many as wives and mothers at the same time. You have made your choices clear and made a difference in family, society, and the workplace.

While different people may define the word "success" differently, I would like to share with you what Ralph Waldo Emerson said about "success":

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; …To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; This is to have succeeded.

This is a nice way of defining "success". It is a reality that women, both career women and housewives, have been bringing positive changes within their families and their workplace. They are a very important resource of the society.

Sylvia, my long time friend also said to me a few minutes ago that the successful woman should not be a failure to herself. Take care of your body, take care of your health.

The road to gender equality

Women who have real economic and political power could make the world a even better place to be by, using Emerson's words, "making more lives breathe easier". Are women making progress in the corridors of power?

The staff of the Equal Opportunities Commission has done some research about women's political participation and finds that in May 2001, women only occupy 14 per cent of District Councils, 18 per cent of the Legislature, and 23 per cent of the Executive Council. In the Executive Branch, 37% of the Secretaries are female. In the Judiciary, 22% of the district court judges and 19% of the higher court judges are women. There are no female judges in the Final Court of Appeal.

On the economic side, women in Hong Kong also have minimal participation in the economic decision-making process. In 1998, a survey of 33 companies that make up the Hang Seng Index showed that less than 5% of the 452 board positions were held by women. Although we have very successful business women like Marjorie Yang of the Esquel Group, women on corporate boards are still few and far between.

I think it is important that more and more women engage in the political and economic debates, and take an active part in determining how to achieve equal opportunities and a sound economy in the new millennium. There is a need to institute some ways to ensure the priorities of women are priorities in the corridors of power, and progress in addressing inequalities must be monitored. It is time to require the political agenda to take women seriously.

CONCLUSION

The Government must have the political will to give women an equal say in Government and this cannot be achieved when women have low-level representation in political participation and in policy advisory bodies. Women will not be equal until the Government begins to implement gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting.

For women to be equal in the workplace, employers will have to adopt equal opportunities policies. Some multinational employers in Hong Kong are beginning to bring some of the practices in their home countries into Hong Kong. For example, they are offering flexible work arrangements so that workers can be more productive in managing work and personal life.

As a society, we should be teaching the next generation the importance of gender equality and the female role in society. This will make a lot of lives breathe easier.

In conclusion, let me tell you how I see a woman come of age,
"Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.
Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.
Age15: She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister
(Mum I can't go to school looking like this!)
Age 20: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" – but decides she's going out anyway.
Age 30: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" – but decides she's doesn't have time to fix it so she's going out anyway.
Age 40: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" – but says, "At least, I am "clean" and goes out anyway.
Age 50: She looks at herself and sees "I am" and goes wherever she wants to go."

End