Congratulations to Carrie Lam who will become Hong Kong’s first female leader. At The Women’s Foundation, we hope this will be a spur for more women in public office, more women on boards and more women running companies in Hong Kong.
We also look to Mrs Lam to deliver on her promise in the run up to the Election to “adopt more effective measures to unleash the potential of women who are home-makers and enhance Hong Kong’s productivity” by focusing on “nurturing talents for Hong Kong”, starting with enhancing education. Mrs Lam has also pledged to immediately increase the relevant Government recurrent expenditure by HK$5 billion a year to provide the necessary resources for better development of teachers and students and “to continue to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education so that our next generation is better placed to take advantage of future opportunities arising from the rapid development of science and technology and globalisation”. Obviously, these are themes which are very close to our heart at TWF with our various girls & STEM programmes.
Besides this, we hope under Mrs Lam’s leadership, we will see progress in the following areas: a review of the current 10-week statutory maternity leave entitlement to bring it into line with the ILO’s prescribed minimum of 14 weeks based on considerations of maternal health and infant well-being, pension provision for women who have been home-makers and care-givers, more support for women who are caring for children and the elderly, and the inclusion of a gender lens for new policies and programmes.
We also hope that Mrs Lam and the new administration will uphold the city’s core values of inclusiveness, respect for human rights and the rule of law. And we wish her very success in her priority of healing the divide, easing the frustration and uniting our society to move forward.
