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

For instance, in August, it conducted a joint survey with NTUC Women and Family, the labour movement’s division supporting working women and caregivers, to find out more about 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, opening 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.