When she had her second child, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua took four years off work to care for her children.
Juggling career and family was no easy task and the then 26-year-old decided to make her family top priority. 'There's no right or wrong in such a decision. But I was prepared that younger people would get ahead of me and that I might have to work for younger bosses,' she said.
The Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport was speaking to reporters after a dialogue with more than 70 National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) women unionists yesterday.
Together with Labour MP Halimah Yacob, they discussed issues from the impact of the downturn on women and Singapore's low fertility rate to foreign labour and climate change.
Mrs Lim said that during the downturn, employees could be working harder and this could result in extra stress, especially on women coping with both work and family demands.
On helping women to get back to work, Madam Halimah said that last year, NTUC's Back-To-Work Women Programme helped 2,300 do so.
This year, the scheme has already helped more than 800 women.
The two women leaders want companies to be more family-friendly and show flexibility in allowing people to work from home.
On whether women would be short-changed in their work appraisals due to the four months of maternity leave, Mrs Lim said: 'For smaller companies, it can be quite tricky...It's back to how employers want to view it; I'm not saying it's easy, but it can be done.'
But she added that in tough times, mothers should also be more flexible in splitting up their maternity leave. 'Be flexible and help employers by shared responsibility and sacrifice,' she said.
On the economy, Mrs Lim said that in the long term, there is hope and optimism as there is a shift in economic power from the West to the Middle East and Asia. Singaporeans have been living in a competitive environment and are the best survivors in a downturn, constantly upgrading themselves.
She added that Singapore also has a strength in its adaptable people.
She referenced it to late pop icon Michael Jackson, who changed stylistically in his career.
'We should look at ourselves, what we are good in, what skills we have, and make ourselves relevant to the changing economy,' she said.
