SINGAPORE \u2013 As Singapore is now a super-aged societ<\/span><\/a>y with a larger proportion of women seniors, improving the health of this group will significantly bring up the overall health of its senior population, said PAP Women\u2019s Wing chairwoman Sim Ann.<\/p>\n More than six in 10 Singapore residents aged 85 and over are women, said Sim, who is Second Minister for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs, at the party\u2019s women\u2019s advocacy group\u2019s annual conference on Sept 26.<\/p>\n Ensuring that women age well will allow them to gain more years of healthy life, and also benefit their families, she added.<\/p>\n Sim, who has headed the group since 2022, was speaking to an audience of more than 400 people, comprising PAP activists, MPs, partners and guests at the event held at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore\u2019s ballroom.<\/p>\n Her remarks came a day after Singapore announced it has crossed the United Nations threshold for a super-aged society, with 21.4 per cent of citizens now aged 65 and older.<\/p>\n The UN defines a super-aged society as one where at least 21 per cent of the population is aged 65 and above.<\/p>\n Sim said the Women\u2019s Wing will \u201cthink hard\u201d about how to help Singapore\u2019s women age well by better managing issues such as osteoporosis, chronic diseases, frailty and dementia.<\/p>\n The advocacy group is also looking to promote women\u2019s health during earlier life stages, so their life choices are not constrained by health needs, she added.<\/p>\n Keynote Address by Dr Jade Kua, ICF-certified Master Certified Coach & Founder Jade Life And Wellness Coaching Clinic & Academy during the PAP Women\u2019s Wing Conference.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: GIN TAY<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n For younger women, health issues that they need to manage include menstrual disorders, fertility, menopause and endometriosis \u2013 a disease in which tissue similar to the uterus lining grows outside the uterus, leading to pelvic pain and impacting fertility.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, with women marrying and having children later, we need to focus on reproductive and maternal health at older ages,\u201d Sim said. \u201cAnd given our high female labour force participation rate, we should consider how workplaces can be more supportive of women\u2019s health needs.\u201d<\/p>\n The PAP Women\u2019s Wing, formed in 1989, looks into issues relevant to women and translates these into policy advocacy.<\/p>\n For instance, in August, it conducted a joint survey with NTUC Women and Family, the labour movement\u2019s division supporting working women and caregivers, to find out more about women\u2019s challenges across different life stages.<\/p>\n PAP Women\u2019s Wing Chairperson Sim Ann interacting with the attendees during the PAP Women?s Wing Conference 2026 at Mandarin Oriental Singapore.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: GIN TAY<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n It polled 2,375 women.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Perimenopause is the transitional phase before menopause.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Sim said some of the survey findings reinforce what the Women\u2019s Wing already knows, for instance, the importance of having flexible work arrangements, especially for women who are at the stage of forming families.<\/p>\n But at the same time, the findings also point to emerging areas where awareness may be lacking, opening up avenues for the women\u2019s group to explore.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThis 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Speaking to the media before the conference, the Women\u2019s Wing\u2019s adviser for health and well-being Goh Hanyan said the group will launch new programmes to deal with these issues.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Women\u2019s Wing will also work with the PAP\u2019s Mental Health Group to train mental health ambassadors across the party\u2019s branches to understand common issues faced by women and provide support, she said.<\/p>\n Attendees in a group photo during the PAP Women\u2019s Wing Conference 2026 Women Empowered at Mandarin Oriental Singapore on Sept 26.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: GIN TAY<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n 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.<\/p>\n This includes dealing with early-career stress, and making workplaces more responsive to women\u2019s health needs and caregiving responsibilities, she said.<\/p>\n Sim, in separate remarks to the media, added that the Women\u2019s Wing has completed eight \u201clistening sessions\u201d after announcing the new series of engagements in March.<\/p>\n The listening sessions are organised around the four advocacy areas the Women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Most of these sessions have focused on Singaporeans\u2019 aspirations for dating, marriage and parenthood, and it is preparing recommendations to submit to the interagency workgroup<\/span><\/a> on marriage and parenthood, she said.<\/p>\n This workgroup, chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Office Indranee Rajah, has already submitted its first set of recommendations to the Government.<\/p>\n Some of these were announced at the National Day Rally in August, including moves to increase support for children across their childhoods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 As Singapore is now a super-aged society with a larger proportion of women seniors, improving the health of this group will significantly bring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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