Season 1 - Episode 4 | Champion for Women and the Underprivileged: Dr. Anamah Tan

Dr. Anamah Tan shares a fascinating view into her growing up years in patriarchal postwar Singapore from the 1940s, where "men were making all the arrangements" for her life, to becoming truly a pioneering woman leader of her time - A dedicated family lawyer and champion for the rights of women and the underprivileged.

Tell us,“What's the biggest challenge for women in your country?”
Email me: Dr.Ramesh@talentleadershipcrucible.com and I'll respond!

Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host and Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible

Guest Speaker: Dr. Anamah Tan, Founder of Ann Tan Associates and 1st Singapore Representative of CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women)

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Transcript

Like and comment on my podcast.
Tell us,“What's the biggest challenge for women in your country?”
Email me: Dr.Ramesh@talentleadershipcrucible.com and I'll respond!

Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host and Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible

Guest Speaker: Dr. Anamah Tan, Founder of Ann Tan Associates and 1st Singapore Representative of CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women)

#SCWO #UNCEDAW #SAWL #ACWO #ICW #starshelter #womenleaders #womenlawyers #womenscharter #entrepreneurship #womenentrepreneurs #entrepreneurs #asianwomen #asianbusiness #womenempowerment #womenpower #bigjumptintoentrepreneurship #asianpodcast #womenpodcast #genderequality #breakthebias #IWD2022 #internationalwomensday #womensday #internationalwomensday2022 #celebratingwomen 

Hello, and a warm welcome to this special edition of Thriving in the Age of Disruption. And let's welcome Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra and Dr. Anamah Tan.

Dr. Ramesh  00:37

I am so happy to be connecting today with Dr. Anamah Tan. She is a mentor and an old friend. In fact, it's our honour that she's spending time with us today to share her inspiring life story. 

 Dr. Ramesh  00:51

Today is the beginning of a special edition that we are running to celebrate International Women's Day. Ann is someone who sets the bar for the rest of us in being a pioneering woman of her time, and who has made important contributions to advancing the rights and the status of women in Singapore, Asia, and even worldwide. Ann is a dedicated family lawyer. She's still practising, and at the top of her game. She's a well-respected woman leader. She has campaigned against gender discrimination and has worked for the better protection of women from domestic violence. All this began in the 1970s when she and a group of women lawyers started the Singapore Association of Women Lawyers, SAWL. She was also a founding member of the Singapore Council of Women's Organisation, SCWO. SCWO is the apex women's organisation in Singapore. It has over 16 member organisations and represents close to half a million women. It serves to unite them to work towards the ideals of equal space, equal voice and equal worth for women in Singapore. Ann was also the President to the Asian Confederation of Women's Organisation and the International Council of Women. She was the first and only Singaporean to be elected to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, UN CEDAW in short. Many organisations have benefited from a selfless contributions, expertise, and experience. And in her pursuit for helping women and the underprivileged, she has earned many honours, including the International Living Legacy Award by the Women International Centre, WIC and the Women's Rights Law Firm of the year in Singapore by global law experts. So welcome, Ann.

 Dr. Anamah Tan  03:01

Gosh, that's actually my life. It's 80 years. Okay, that's a long time. You know, I never thought the runway would be so long. Okay.

 Dr. Ramesh  03:12

Or so fruitful and fulfilling. 

 Dr. Anamah  03:24

I'm a normal woman, okay. Okay, there goes. How long have I known you, Ramesh?

 Dr. Ramesh  03:33

It's going to age both of us. But I think we knew each other in the early 90s. When I was just getting started in my work with women's organisation and you were this role model that I looked up to. I'm not sure whether you are already the president of SCWO then.

 Dr. Anamah Tan  04:08

I was, yes. 

 Dr. Ramesh  04:09

You also involved with the Dew Credit Co-operative, where I was a board member. Then we did meditation together and you were at some point my divorce lawyer. So we've known each other in different capacities. 

 Dr. Anamah  04:25

Correct. And our dear friend the late Julie Tan, yes. Those were the days when I thought meditation was one of the ways in which we can find ourselves. Wonderful. Now we are on this podcast together. I'm delighted to be on it.

 Dr. Ramesh  04:44

Ann, would you be so kind as to share a little bit about yourself, your early growing up days, your family background, your early career? 

 Dr. Anamah  04:56

I'm now all of 81 years old. I was born in 1940, so I went to school to St. Margaret's. It was a really wonderful school. It's a mission school. And I got my early education there. Early education nowadays it means preschool. But in my case, there was no preschool. We just went to Primary One. So anyway, those were my early days, I still have pictures of those early days. And I really looked like a 'goondu'. But it was really wonderful. And because those early years, when we were taught to serve and to be of service to others. I think that missionaries really knew what was good. So anyway, that was my early life. When I was a baby, I was adopted by this lovely Ceylonese family. My maiden name is Anamah Nagalingam. So those are my early days. When I talk about my family, it means my foster family because, to me, they are my family. I got to know my real parents and all that my siblings very late on in life when I was quite old. And now I still do see them. Yeah. So, it's nice to know. But to me, my family is my foster family. So that's where I went my early school years. And we learned, as I said, "How to be of service". And I remember in the early days, St. Margaret's, we used to work together with St. Andrews, and we went to this Potong Pasir village. Old Potong Pasir village was really a village, you had to walk for about a mile and a half, before you actually enter into the main village and we served the villagers. We cleaned their wounds and all that when I was a 13-year-old. Very, very impressionable, that age.

 Dr. Ramesh  07:03

How come you didn't become a doctor? I mean, given that early exposure that you had, nurturing and taking care of people. 

 Dr. Anamah  07:11

I don't know, I've always wanted to be a teacher. Even in those my early years, I've always wanted to be a teacher. And I must say that I tried to be a teacher when I was young, and my father just would not let me have anything to do with it. I had gone through all the different tests and all that to get to the TTC. In those days, that TTC was either a three-year course or a two-year course, certificate trained. So in my young brain, I think I was all 16 years old then, and I thought, well, I wanted to be a teacher. So certificate training means two years, but after two years, I can earn more. Okay, I'll go for that. And I had a series of tests and all that and I got my results. I was so proud of it. And at that time, I went to present it to my father. He never said a word to me, not one word. He went straight to the telephone, picked it up. And he spoke to the gentleman on the other side, and he said, “Vanya”, his name was Vanya Singam. He was then the TTC Principal. And he said, “My daughter resigned as of now”. And that was the end of my teaching career. I had no say, I cried and I begged and it didn't work at all. And you know what, for that, I am grateful to my father. Because we all used to think, well, when I was young, I always thought I was right. So I had no choice. Then it was, obey your father. And I think that obedience to my father paid off in my later years, and I'm so grateful to him that he made me obey him. Not many people can make me obey them, you know, but he did.

 Dr. Ramesh  09:11

Right? And so you became a lawyer.

 Dr. Anamah  09:14

So I became a lawyer. 

 Dr. Ramesh  09:16

And then what did you do after graduation? 

 Dr. Anamah  09:19

After graduation? Oh, you should have seen those early days. The market was against it. When I graduated, I was in the third batch of the law school from Singapore. And we were all very new. Of course, the economy was against us at that point.

 Dr. Ramesh  09:38

You mean it was like a financial crisis where it was difficult to get jobs?

 Dr. Anamah  09:42

Yes, it was difficult to get jobs and at that point of time, they said the legal profession was saturated. 

 Dr. Ramesh  09:50

Oh wow, with just three batches. 

 Dr. Anamah  09:52

After three batches because at that those early times, most of the lawyers came from England. Even in those early days, we were told that the legal profession was saturated. So there you go. That was one of the early setbacks. So that was when I graduated, and that was in 1963, yes. 1963. 

 Dr. Ramesh  10:19

And what did you do? 

 Dr. Anamah  10:21

Well, when I graduated, my father had just passed away. He was already 80. You know, I was so touched, because I never knew he was so proud of me. In those early days. Fathers never said anything, if they're proud of you anything like that. No way. No such thing as, “Oh, you have done well”, or any words of encouragement. It was, if you had done well, it was just a proof kind of thing. It was to be expected. But if you did badly, gosh. In those early days, as I said, I wanted so much to be a teacher. And then my first year in university, I remember, my father was very strict, of course. We came from a very strict family. So I was the only one who didn't apply to go for the Orientation Ball. And then my school principal, he was really nice, Professor Sheridan. Professor Sheridan, called me up to his office. When the principal calls you to the office, it is that, “What have I done wrong kind of thing”, right? Wow, I really was so scared.

 Dr. Anamah  11:32 

And then all he asked me was, why have I not signed up to attend the orientation ball? I thought to myself, “Such a stupid question to ask”. And then all I answered was, “Oh, my father wouldn't allow me”. He says, “What? What? I'll come and see your father”. “Please don't. Please don't, sir. Don't come and see my father, he'll make mincemeat out of you”. I was so scared of him going to see my father to ask my father to let me go to the ball. Anyway, he was so adamant. And he did. He went to see my father, made the appointment and all that. And I don't know what they said between themselves. When he came out of this, he said, “Okay, you're coming to the ball”. I said, “I am?” He said, “Yes, I made all the arrangements”. 

 Dr. Anamah  12:25

Can you get that, these men making all the arrangements for my life? But there you go. He actually made the arrangements. Apparently, my father told him that he must find a nice, young man who will make sure that I will come home by 12 o'clock.

 Dr. Ramesh  12:48

Wow. 

 Dr. Anamah  12:50

Dear me. And he did, he found me this nice guy. I think he was in his second year, Kelantan Prince! 

 Dr. Ramesh  13:01

Seriously. 

 Dr. Anamah  13:04 

Serious, serious, He did. And he and this guy was a real nice young man. He brought me to the ball. He said, “You must be ready. 11:30 we must leave”. I was only five minutes away from the university, you know? Must remember that because he has a car. Father said, “Must have a car”, must send me home by 12 o'clock. Not later. So there you go. So at 11:30 and I was having a whale of a time with all that my new friends, dancing away and all that. And then he said, “It's 11:30, let's go back”. I said, “We are only five minutes away. Don't be such a dampener”. I call him some names. You see, that's for being so thankful. But anyway, he managed to drag me off the dance floor and we went home and actually just before midnight. Who ever heard of a dance ending before midnight? Anyway, so I went home before midnight, he kept his word at least. He said, “I will get into deep trouble, not only with your father, but with Professor Sheridan. And you know, nobody gets into trouble the Professor Sheridan”. I went home with him like a good girl. So that was my date - perfect date. 

 Dr. Ramesh  14:29

Perfect Date! Do you still keep in touch with the Prince?

 Dr. Anamah  14:33

Yes, we became good friends after that. And he's the epitome of gentlemanliness. So nice. He was good. That was the story of my early life. And I went through the four years. I thought the first-year, wow, attrition rate was like 75%. I thought never mind. I'll fail my first year. And I'll get to be a teacher. You know how you think when you're young? So determined, like all good children in those days, failure is something that is very looked down upon. Yeah. And then somehow at the last minute, all my friends said, “Come on now let's make a good effort”. So, we all did make a good effort. And I managed to get through that. And so, I stayed on. 

 Dr. Ramesh  15:27

Yeah, right. And in your graduating class, how many of you were there? 

 Dr. Anamah  15:31

When we started, there were about 130 of us. I think we ended there were only 30 of us. Yeah, it was quite bad. The second year was a honeymoon year, we didn't have an exam. Third year was another big exam. And then after that we did our last - the final year, which was the year that I really enjoyed it after that.

 Dr. Ramesh  15:56

And so did you become a lawyer immediately after you graduated?

 Dr. Anamah  15:59 

No, my godfather, who was an English lawyer, he said, “What do you want to do, Anamah?” I said, “I want to be a lawyer. What do you think? What do I want to do?” “You mean, you want to go to court and all that?” “Of course. Why?” “No, no. You want to be a lawyer? Then you only do conveyancing.” I said, “No, I don't want to do just conveyancing, so boring!” He said, “No. Who says conveyancing is boring?” “I say conveyancing is boring.” Anyway, he said, “Well, I don't think you'll have much of a career. You want to get married, don't you?” I said, “Yes”. “Then no, no, no, you better go and work in a bank or statutory board.” You know, in those days, a bank. And I thought to myself, here's another one. 

 Dr. Anamah  16:53

And I listened to my godfather, because by then my father had passed away. My godfather's a very, very nice English gentleman. He helped me to make appointment and all that. So I went for my interviews, they had PUB, PSA, in those days, and HDB. So HDB was the one that gave me my first job. I went to HDB for seven years, I worked there and then set up the legal department. But then, at the end of that, there was the glass ceiling, no matter what anybody said, in those days. I told myself, this is as far as I can go. And at that point of time, one of my former lecturers in the university, asked me if I wanted to go into private practice. And I thought to myself, I asked my godfather. My godfather, then said, “Do you really want to go into private practice? Don't you think you have a quite a good life?” Yes, I had quite a good life in the sense that, you know, you work 9 to 5. But after that, I wasn't really working 9 to 5, even in those days, I was quite, I think, enterprising. The HDB was just starting, I think, the sale of flats wasn't doing well. And I used to go out on my own time, because in those days, if you're an officer of the Board, you don't get overtime pay, you don't get all sorts of things. And I used to go after office hours when those people are at home and eating and all that, knock on their doors and tell them it's better to buy this flat because after 15 years, it will become yours. And all you need to pay another maybe $10 extra per month on your rental, what you're paying for rental, etc. 

 Dr. Anamah  19:08

Oh my goodness, we did all that on our own time. Okay, so those were the early days. Anyway, I then started my sojourn into the practice. I was a junior then because you had to start from the bottom, it seems. You have seven years, so what? Okay, never mind. So what if you started this and you started that? It didn't matter. So I had to start from the bottom. I worked myself up to become partner. And then Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the late, at one of our dinners - these big dinners, at the time, I think I was then already President of the Singapore Association of Women Lawyers (SAWL). So anyway, because I was President of something or other, I sat at the table. And you must understand, I admire, I respect, I would do anything for our Prime Minister the. So he then announced all you local lawyers, “If you're not careful, if you don't pull up your socks, I'm going to bring in all these lawyers, clever lawyers from England, from Australia, from I don't know where else, and then you all will be finished.”

 Dr. Anamah  20:42

He said that and I said, “Oh, I must take cognizance of that”. So I decided, okay, if I cannot beat them, I better join them. So I took two years off from my legal practice, I think I was then with Laycock and Ong. And I made arrangements, I can go there and do my two years and come back and in between, I do my other cases, and I was doing this, like, part-time. It is supposed to be full-time, quite a hectic part of my life then. And that was two years, I was admitted to the solicitor's course there. So now I'm a solicitor of England and Wales. That must have been in the 1970s. I still keep my practising certificate in UK even up to now. There you go. 

 Dr. Ramesh  21:45

So when you came back, after you got yourself registered as a practising solicitor? Did you start your own firm?

 Dr. Anamah  21:54

When I came back, what do I want to do? So that's the next thing. Yeah. It was a question of whether I want to practice in UK? Because I can practice in UK then. It is there, or practice here? So then, after thinking, all sorts of things, by then I had remarried. My first marriage then broke down, can you imagine the hassle. It didn't last very long. By then, by the 80s - late 80s, I started my own firm in 1986. And that time, my dear husband was very kind. He saw me working quite hard earlier on. And he said, “Why don't you start on your own?” So I decided, okay, since he has so much of confidence in me. I still remember telling him, “Give me three years”. So $80,000, I borrowed from him. And that went mostly to pay for three months of the rental, you had to pay two months deposit and one month's rent and all that sort of thing. And then do the office and all that. It just went to all those expenses. And I only had one staff and myself. 

 Dr. Anamah  23:08

I did everything, even sweeping the floor, putting the water and all that. Yeah, never mind. It was all right. Quite happy doing it. So I did everything. And yes, those were hard days. But it was also very satisfying. Because all the clients I left before going for the two years to UK, all came back to me. So you see, when you do good work for your clients, they actually will return you the favour in that way. Yeah. I was so pleased with that because within a year, I managed to return him his whatever I owed him. Plus I even I told him those days POSB I think was paying two and a half percent interest, 2.9% interest I think. Yeah, so I paid him 2.5% interest. The banks were charging much more, of course, but then I told him, “You said interest free loan. So actually, I'm paying you back, two and a half percent interest”. 

 Dr. Anamah  24:26

Okay, let me tell you this, I must say, Paul was very proud of me. He said, “You don't have to pay me back, you know?” I said “No, no. Owing is owing, so I will pay you back with interest”. I paid back with flourish. I was actually quite happy doing it because it made me feel that I was independent. But being independent is one thing. Being grateful is another and I was really grateful to him. 

 Dr. Anamah  25:05

You can always turn a setback, I think, or adversity to an advantage in the way that I actually did when our Prime Minister threw that challenge to us. I actually could see the writing on the wall. Oh, that's where we are going. Oh, and it was never heard of, in those days, to open up the practice here to outsiders, because every jurisdiction was very protective of their own jurisdiction. I suppose the beginning of globalisation. We never knew it in those days that it was called that. So, a lot of things happened during our lifetime, you know? Now it is disruption.

 Dr. Ramesh  25:44

Yes, indeed, over the last 30 years, I think I've read in the news, and I've heard from people about the cycles that we've had of either saturated or a tight legal market. 

 Dr. Anamah  25:55

They always found another way of looking at it. Actually, the legal discipline is a very good foundation. I've known of people who have gone into a successful chocolate… Awfully Chocolate, industries, manufacturing and all that. And even choreography, I remember one of my classmates is a ballet dancer, Simon. Yeah, he's a ballet dancer. And he became a choreographer, because his parents wanted him to be a lawyer. So, yeah. He wanted to fulfil their ambition. 

 Dr. Ramesh  26:35

Well, I want to make a quick segue into another big piece of your life, which is a volunteer work. And you started early from being a 13-year-old who went around in the village helping people to later on went working at HDB. After work, you would go and try and persuade people to take on the new flats. How did you decide then that it was in the area of women activism that you wanted to spend more time?

 Dr. Anamah  27:07

Ramesh, we never planned this thing. At least I never planned it. It's just that I happened to be at the right time. And there was a need. Obviously, there was a need at that point of time, because women were just going out to work in those days, factories opening in Singapore. Jurong was then opening up. And we had a lot of young women from Malaysia coming down to Singapore to work and things like that. And they really didn't know much about the working environment, employment, there was harassment and things like that going on, they didn't know what their rights were clearly. 

 Dr. Anamah  27:48

And so we had just started the women lawyers at that time in 1974. So we decided we would go out to the, and in those days, they were called, the boondocks. Because there was no transport and all that so we had to go and find our own way there. And got to know the HR. It so happened that all most of the HR around there were young women, young women themselves. Because I think the men didn't want to go, I suppose, to work so far away, but and we got to know them. And we got to talk to all these factory workers. So we used to engage them in that way. Get them during their lunchtime, half an hour or so 45 minutes, give them a talk on employment rights, women's rights. Women's Charter at that time had just come out. In those days, it was okay, they can get married. But it's only lately work permit people couldn't get married and things like that. But we used to do all these kinds of talks. And then we decided, well, not only these women from Malaysia and other parts of, in those days, not so much of other parts of the world, mainly from Malaysia. The YWCA was also very much involved. The YWCA used to have the hostels were there. So those were the breeding grounds, those who are the places that we could find what I call captive audience. And we did our work there. And really, it was very interesting. I began I think my work was HDB kept me, I suppose, in touch with those lower economic group. I used to do a lot of this rent arrears thing where we have to evict them and really very sad when we do that. And actually, I think was a very good landlord in those days. We tried our best to help them. So in those early days, one of the things I do remember was that how we help close down the toddy shop at Newton. Most of our workers were daily rated, right? Yes, they used to drink away all their salary. Okay. And their poor wives were living these one-room flats. Yeah, I was so mad, and why can't we just sequester part of the salary and make sure at least the rent is paid, and the family has got something to eat? And there, these people are having a nice time drinking that toddy and that's all they can think of. 

 Dr. Ramesh  30:25

Thank you so much for sharing this journey. Because people like my daughter, who was 26, you when she looks at volunteering, or being part of a woman's movement, she doesn't get to see the origin of how this whole work started and how you all went to the factory floor. It was a ground up work that was done to create awareness and to impact the people who were short-changed by virtue of either insufficient legal rights or insufficient awareness. So, from then, how did you go on to eventually representing Singapore in the UN?

 Dr. Anamah  31:08

Whoa, wow, that was quite a leap, yeah. You know that for many, many years, women's rights were not so important. I still remember in those days, what is important is to make sure that everybody has three meals. I mean that the stomach is filled, that they have a roof over their heads, and all that. So we can't wait forever, is it, for all these to be fulfilled? You have to start somewhere. So even in those early days, we had already the Women's Charter, which was very good in the sense that it then banned polygamy for the non-Muslims. And hopefully, it had started a regime of housewives, being able to have assets and being able to have matrimonial assets in that case. So even in those days, you were very concerned about it. Because in the early days, it's always been male child will get all the properties and all that. During my time, mind you. So it wasn't that long ago. Thank God, my father was very enlightened man. Because even in my days, it was not that bad. I mean, girl children did go to school. But before that, No. So if you read the early pioneers, like this missionary, they actually established girls schools and all that, in order to take the “char bo kia”, because it’s like slave girls, from the streets, to educate them. And I think that was a good thing. 

 Dr. Anamah  32:55

And the fact that the government made it very early on, girl child or boy child, should go to school, which is good. We have not only maintained that, I think, but it has become a norm. So that's why your daughter doesn't know much about that. But it's history. I mean, if she reads history, and she's interested in history, I think there's a lot of books on that too. 

 Dr. Ramesh  33:25

Right, great. 

 Dr. Anamah  33:27

So how did I get into that? Okay, this is not by design, as I said, or anything like that. One day, I just got a phone call. That time was Ministry of Community Development (MCD), “Minister would like to meet you”. But then, it is because we always do quite a lot of work with the MCD in those early days. We, meaning the women lawyers and SCWO. So, I thought, “Okay, he wants to see me, must be that something he wants to be done”. So, okay, so we just went for the, I think it was a lunch at the Singapore Cricket Club. I went for the lunch. And then Minister was there with two of his officers there. So he said, “Ann, are you interested in being nominated to stand for elections for the CEDAW?” Wow. Because I knew quite a lot about CEDAW, having been to New York for quite a few Commission on the Status of Women meetings and all that. My eyes just lit up. At least that's what I was told. And then the next thing that surprised him, that's what he said to me. And he said in front of his two officers, “Can I consult my husband first?” He looked at his two ladies that were there. He said, “Do you believe what she said?” So I turned around and said, “Why, what's wrong with that?” “Woman leader saying that, huh, not bad,” he said, “You better take a leaf from her book”.

 Dr. Anamah  35:03

But I really didn't mean it in that way that he was saying. I meant it as a person who respects my husband and wanted his viewpoint because I knew that if I agreed to it, some of my time will have to be spent away from the home. And so that's what I said. I thought it was quite a normal reaction. I was surprised. And so I said, “Okay, but-” I said, “No, I'm very serious about that”. He said “Oh, okay. But you mustn't tell this to anyone? Because this must not go out until a decision has been made”. You know, I'm a very, very obedient person. I never said it, not anyone else other than to my dear husband. And my husband, of course said, “I can see that makes you very happy, doesn't it?” Of course, I mean, this is like, being asked to do something, which I would never in all my dreams, think of even asking for it. I said, “You know, I would never ask for myself anything. It's true. I would never ask anything for myself”. 

 Dr. Anamah  36:16

So, as a result, I then went back, and I said, “Okay”. Then he said, “You must not tell anyone”. Okay. So I didn't. I didn't tell anyone about it until the announcement was made. And you know, the amount of flack I got from my friends. Wow, they all got so angry with me because they thought I had this thing. And I just kept it to myself. Not true, you know, I was just being truth- I mean, I thought I gave my word therefore, I must keep it. And this is one of the things that I really, really think is very important that we must have credibility and integrity to our words. If somebody says, don't tell this to anybody, I would never breathe a word of it to anyone, you know. Anyway, apart from that, it's also part of my training. 

 Dr. Ramesh  37:22

That's right. That's right. 

 Dr. Anamah  37:23

Yeah. So there you go. Anyway, so that was how it turned out. And after that meeting, I never said anything to anybody until the minister made the announcement. Then, of course, everybody then said, “Oh, you knew about this, and you never told us? How can you do that to us? We are your friends, your good friends”. And I had to explain why. And I think some of them never forgave me for that. I just hope they do understand after time, perhaps. And it's never that I have kept anything away, on my own. I mean this is a happy thing, if it happens, because even at that point of time, the reason why that was said was because number one, it has never been done. 

 Dr. Anamah  38:22

Singapore never thinks of women's rights to be of any, shall we say, importance? I said that very softly, because to me, it is important and I think there's nothing wrong with saying it loudly. It was very important, because then it also gives out the message to our men, that look, it is to your advantage that the women are- In fact, it is to their advantage. You know, the amount of things that can be done, if only we could get full cooperation, which I think we are getting now. Thank God for that. You know, during my time I was thinking, “Oh, my God, I don't know how we're going to reach our menfolk”. And now I see so many men, going super-marketing with their wives, and sometimes on their own, and their children, which I think is wonderful. And now I also see men, changing nappies. Wow, I was so happy, and thanks to the Centre for Fathering. I think they did quite a good job. Yeah, I hope they will succeed and succeed well. 

 Dr. Ramesh  39:44

Thank you, Ann. We've enjoyed taking a journey down memory lane on Singapore's development of fair employment and rights for women over the years and mostly, thank you for inspiring us to be our best selves.

Do follow our podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening so that you'll be sure to catch our next episode, anchored by a very special woman change maker, Ms. Phuong Uyen Tran, the extraordinary businesswoman who competes with giants and what has been called, in Vietnam, the billion-dollar girl.


Bio: Dr. Anamah Tan

PPA(G); PBM; BBM; JP (Retired), Solemniser

Advocate & Solicitor; Commissioner for Oaths; Notary Public

LL.B(Hons)(Singapore); MRICS; FIAFL; SiARB; Solicitor England & Wales; Ph.D. (Business Admin.)

ChT; IBFA; Associate Mediator SMC; Child Representative, Member UIA, MiKK & BIMACC

 Dr. Anamah Tan, a dedicated family lawyer by training has over 45 years of experience in advancing the rights of status of women in Singapore, Asia and worldwide. She is a well respected woman leader as she has initiated and spearheaded many projects that benefited women and their families. She has campaigned relentlessly against gender discrimination and for better protection of women from domestic violence. Dr. Tan’s contributions to public service are immeasurable. 

 For Dr. Tan, it all began in the early 1970s, when she and a group of women lawyers started the Singapore Association of Women Lawyers (SAWL). SAWL was set up to raise legal literacy among the community, particularly the under-privileged and women in blue-collar jobs in Singapore. SAWL also conducts free legal clinics and members give talks on the different aspects of the law that affect their daily lives.

 Under her leadership in SAWL, Dr. Tan helped to make the legal process more attuned to the needs of the people and was instrumental in making substantive changes to the Women’s Charter both in the 1980 and 1996 amendments. The Amendments to the Women’s Charter were passed giving more teeth to the laws against domestic violence, extending protection to members of the family as well as widening the definition of violence to include mental abuse.

 Also in 1995, thanks to Dr. Tan’s lobbying platforms, the Family Court of Singapore was established. Today, the Court has jurisdiction over virtually all family-related disputes in Singapore, and promotes resolution of conflicts through counselling and mediation, instead of by way of the adversarial route. Since then Family relationships and children related problems were resolved in a conciliatory way and since then programmes such as the Child Representative resolve hotly disputed custody issues have been effectively put in place and continue to evolve in a consultative and non-adversarial manner.

 In 1979, various women’s organisations banded together to form the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO) and SAWL, and Dr. Tan was one of its founding members.

Under Dr. Tan’s leadership, among other initiatives, she raised funds to build the SCWO Centre and helped to establish the Star Shelter, the only secular crisis centre in Singapore. The Star Shelter provides a safe temporary refuge for women and their children who are victims of family violence regardless of race, language, creed or religion. It also empowers the victims to manage and take responsibility for their lives, and assist them in rebuilding their lives free from violence. All the residents are referred by the Family Court, Family Service Centres, the Police, Hospitals and other Agencies. Apart from providing meals and lodging, The Star Shelter also provides Trauma/Crisis Counselling and Case Management. 

Dr. Tan's work on women's rights went regional and international. She became active since early 1990s in the Asean Confederation of Women's Organisations and was its President in 2000 to 2002. She is now its Special Adviser. She was the President of the International Council of Women from 2003 to 2009. In 2004, Dr. Tan successfully sought a seat on the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW).  The Committee, comprising 23 gender experts on women’s issues from around the world, monitors the progress made by countries that are Party to the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Dr. Tan was the first, and so far only Singaporean to be elected to the Committee. The UN CEDAW Committee reviews reports submitted by the governments as well as by women’s groups on the state of women in each country, and it makes recommendations on the issues that it believes need more attention. Dr. Tan served from 2004-2008.

 Many organizations benefitted from her selfless contributions, expertise and experience. She has served on numerous boards, in different capacities as you can see from her curriculum vitae attached herein.

With this relentless pursuit of helping women and the underprivileged, Dr. Tan received the following honours:-

Honours / State Awards

1.      National Medal for Public Administration (Bronze) [PPA(G)] in 1966.

 2.      Pingat Bintang Masyarakat (PBM) - National Medal for Community work done to help the poor and the underprivileged and women in 1993.

 3.      Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (BBM) - National Medal for Public Service Star in 1998.

 4.      Leader Mentor Award 2003 by Research Communication International in recognition of significant contribution in ra ising leaders for the community.

 5.      SCWO International Women’s Day Award 2003.

 6.      2003 East Asia Millennium Women Peace Award on Humanitarian Services by the Millennium Women for Peace & Development Foundation, Inc.

 7.      Asean Confederation of Women’s Organisation’s (ACWO) Award 2004.

 8.      FairPrice Active Senior Citizen of the Year 2004.

 9.      Asean Confederation of Women’s Organisations’ (ACWO) Presidential Award, 20th November 2008 at the Philippine Women’s University.

 10.    International Living Legacy Award 2009 by Women’s International Center (WIC).

 11.    Inducted to the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame on 14 March 2014.

 12.    Women’s Rights Law Firm of the Year in Singapore June 2016 by Global Law Experts.