SINGAPORE: Technology has given women in the Singapore Armed
Forces (SAF) more opportunities to excel in combat positions.
This is one example how the roles of women in the SAF have changed
in the past 40 years.
Women were already part of the armed forces in 1967, during the
first-ever enlistment exercise.
Back then, they provided administrative support.
By the 1970s, over 80 per cent of the SAF's clerks were
women.
But working the typewriter was not what First Warrant Officer
Jennifer Tan had in mind, when she enlisted in 1984.
She jumped at the chance to become a combat instructor and became
the third batch to graduate from the course in 1988.
"In the combat women trainer then, you can only be instructional.
But instructional can allow you to handle the systems, the weapon
systems that you like," says Ms Tan.
"
I can impart my knowledge that I have, to a group of men which in
clerical, [one] doesn't have the opportunity to do so".
The Army started its first combat trainer's course for women in
1986, as a pilot project to expand the roles of servicewomen.
But even before that, women were already moving beyond their
traditional clerical positions, albeit slowly.
The Air Force for instance, welcomed its first four women pilots in
1979, and women have since contributed to overseas humanitarian
missions as medical and logistics personnel.
And more opportunities for servicewomen opened up in the 1990s,
when they were recruited for increasingly challenging combat
positions.
But some, like Naval Captain Neo Suyin, will argue that women
officers will always face a different set of challenges...or even
privileges.
"I think sometimes the woman has to do a lot more to prove her
equal worth as a male counterpart," says Captain Neo.
"There are privileges to being a woman in the SAF. I think one of
the things you see is that the way people respond to women in the
SAF.
"I have been told many a times that the culture on board the ship
changes for the better when the woman comes on board. The ship
becomes neater, the men are more polite. You know, things like
that".
And as the SAF continues its push to use more technology, many
expect servicewomen to take up even more challenging roles in the
future.
"In line with the 3G SAF, where really it's a lot more about
maximising your operational capacity using resources, and less the
physical strength and the physical presence of the person in the
field
Using technology, computers
and maximising your land, air
and sea resources
then the need for physical strength in the field
becomes less and women can perform that role just as well as the
men," says Indranee Rajah, Chairman, GPC for Defence.
Members of the public can see how that role has changed for women
in the SAF, in an exhibition at Suntec City which is on until
Wednesday 6 June. - CNA/yy
