Lam vows to tap women’s full potential
HK’s working women need to play bigger role in the community, says CE hopeful
Chief Executive contender Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Wednesday pledged to build a “caring, inclusive and equitable society” by getting women to play a full role in Hong Kong affairs as the city marked International Women’s Day.
Maintaining a work-life balance continues to be a major challenge for working women today, said Lam — the only female candidate in the city’s leadership race on March 26.
With less than three weeks left before the CE election, Lam continued with her campaign to listen to the public’s concerns. She visited working women from different sectors, including bus drivers, metro station assistants, cadet pilots and those working at a social enterprise.
According to the Census and Statistics Department (CSD), Hong Kong has 3.94 million women and 3.37 million men, but the labor participation rate of women is 14 percentage points lower than that of men, which stands at about 70 percent.
Amid a rapidly aging population, the local labor force is projected to peak in 2018 at 3.55 million before dropping to 3.37 million by 2035. To solve the problem, the government had rolled out a series of measures to encourage women to re-enter the job market.
Lam, who was then chief secretary for administration, had chaired the Steering Committee on Population Policy, which introduced concrete measures to help women strike a balance between work and family, including strengthening child care and after-school care services.
“I aim to adopt more effective measures to unleash the potential of women who are home-makers and enhance Hong Kong’s productivity,” Lam said.
In her election manifesto released earlier this month, Lam took a step further to help working women by proposing to set up a children’s commission.
The CSD had revealed that only 31.8 percent of working women were managers and administrators, professionals and associate professionals — 13.4 percentage points lower than the figure for men.
Lam promised last week she would raise the number of female principal officials and bureau heads in government if elected.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who officiated at a reception organized by the Women’s Commission on Wednesday, said the government has long valued women’s role in the community.
The administration is taking steps to increase the number of female government officials, and enhance the environment for productivity, he said.