I APPLAUD the statement by National Trades Union Congress deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob ('Wanted: More women in the workforce', last Thursday) that getting more women back to work is gaining urgency as Singapore aims to reduce its reliance on foreign workers.

In the past 20 years, the educational level of women has increased and their responsibilities are greater now. They face so many problems and challenges in their lives, such as perceptions of women entrepreneurs, impact of their work on their family, harassment in workplace and so on.

Here are some of the solutions and challenges:

• Promote equal pay and fair workplace practices. Encourage employers to adopt model equal employment opportunity policies and provide a counselling service for women who face problems at work. 
• Promote work-family balance. 
• Provide high-quality career information for women's advancement. 
• Women need to earn enough to support their families and they need jobs that offer career paths. Yet they are too often trapped in jobs that do not pay well or do not offer advancement opportunities.

I hope employers will offer women equal opportunity to pull themselves up and join the workforce in greater numbers.

Kok Mei Hui

This article was first published in The Straits Times.