International Women’s Day is celebrated every 8th March. The theme this year is #ChooseToChallenge, because as the organisation’s website declares, “A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.”
We round up 8 notable Singaporean Gen X women who have challenged the conventions of success. Some have made it to Singapore’s Women Hall of Fame, some have made a name for themselves internationally, and all are truly remarkable women in their own right.
1. Jackie Yi-Ru Ying
Born: 1966
Inducted in Women Hall of Fame: 2014
You might have seen her in the newspapers. Jackie Yi-Ru Ying is an award-winning researcher in nanotechnology.
She earned her doctorate in chemical engineering from Princeton, and was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) youngest full-time professor at 35. However, in 2005, she left her stellar career after teaching at MIT for ten years to start the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) in Singapore in 2003. Since then, she has 140 patents granted or pending, and around 320 papers published. She is one of the eight 100 Engineers of the Modern Era, an honour roll compiled by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
The Taiwan-born Muslim convert hopes to mentor and inspire Muslim youths to further themselves in science, just as she was similarly inspired by her Raffles Girls’ School teachers.
2. Sophia Pang
Born: 1972
Inducted in Women Hall of Fame: 2014
Sophia is the first Singaporean woman to ski to the South Pole. How cool is that?
The mother of three was 37 years old when she made the expedition. The gruelling journey involved skiing over 900 kilometres and climbing as high as 12,000 feet in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.
About her reason for doing it? She says, “Quite a lot of people, perhaps because they got married, had children, actually forget about themselves. They get tied up in things and forget they should take time off and make themselves happy.”
3. Gan Siow Huang
Born: 1974
Inducted in Women Hall of Fame: 2019
Siow Huang is currently the Minister of State for Education and Manpower, and Member of Parliament for Marymount Single Member Constituency. She was inducted for being the first woman to become a Brigadier-General in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in 2015.
She was one of the four earliest women recipients of the SAF Merit Scholarship in 1993 when they started offering the scholarship to attract women to further their military careers.
4. Esther Tan Cheng Yin
Born: 1975
Inducted in Women Hall of Fame: 2014
Esther is the first woman naval diver in the Singapore Navy. She might look petite with her 1.55 metres build, but don’t underestimate her – as a naval diver, she has to carry 39 kilogrammes of diving equipment on her expeditions. Also, she’s climbed Mount Everest.
In 2011, she scaled Mount Everest and was just 100 metres shy of reaching the summit before bad weather forced them to turn back. It was a tremendously difficult decision for someone as competitive as her, she admitted. However, through this journey, she realised that “the joy of the journey and the gift of being with great people” was more important and rewarding than making it to the summit.
She is an avid adventure-racer and has participated in international marathons, triathlons, Ironman, and many other adventure races. She was the only women in the Asian team for the 2007 Adventure Racing World Championship, also known as the Olympics of adventure races.
5. Stefanie Sun
Born: 1978
The Mandopop singer-songwriter just celebrated her 20th anniversary last year. The pandemic forced her to shift plans, including her 20th anniversary concert world tour.
She was the first Singaporean musician that Warner Music Group signed with. Two years after her debut, she outpaced Kit Chan, Mavis Hee, and Tanya Chua to become the most successful local singer at age 23.
Though the pandemic forced her to change her concert plans, Stefanie bounced back from the setback and even released a new Mandarin single, “What Remains”, in early February this year. In an online Zoom interview, she shared her thoughts on how the pandemic could teach creators to be more creative.
6. Laurentia Tan
Born: 1979
Inducted in Women Hall of Fame: 2014
She is our most decorated paralympian with two bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and a silver and a bronze at the 2012 London Games.
Laurentia was born profoundly deaf and with cerebral palsy, a group of disorders that affects her ability to move or maintain balance and posture. Her family moved to the UK when she was three because of her father’s job, and stayed because of the better facilities available to those diagnosed with cerebral palsy. She took up horse riding at five for physiotherapy and later started training for dressage in 2006.
In dressage, horses and their riders move to the rhythm of the music. As Laurentia cannot hear the music, she is given a signal when the music has begun, from which she controls her horse by sensing its rhythms. The acting medical director at the Singapore Sports Council, Dr Cormac O’Muircheartaigh, says that he is very impressed by her precise control of the horse as Laurentia has unstable muscle movements due to her tighter muscles.
7. Joscelin Yeo Wei Ling
Born: 1979
Inducted in Women Hall of Fame: 2014
In her 17-year competitive swimming history, Joscelin has won 40 gold medals and holds the longest competitive swimming career record in Singapore.
She started swimming at seven years old, and later studied overseas under famous sports coaches like Bill Nelson and Michael Walker. Majoring in Education in the University of Texas, she graduated in 2003 with honours in kinesiology and health education, and was even named collegiate All-America swimmer 21 times. Later, she was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship for her impressive records in sport and academics, though she did not take it up.
She retired from competitive swimming aged 28 and is now a church counsellor, though she continues to contribute as Vice-President (Swimming) at the Singapore Swimming Association.
8. Jeanette Aw
Born: 1979
Also known as her stage name Ou Xuan, Jeanette is most famous for her iconic roles as an actress such as the leading role in The Little Nyonya. Alongside acting, she has ventured into directing, producing, starting her own production company Picturesque Films, illustration, and also publishing two books.
In 2017, she surprised everyone when she decided not to renew her contract with MediaCorp to pursue other interests. She has since become less active within the showbiz scene as she turned to pursuing her interest in patisserie. In 2019, she graduated with a Diplôme de Pâtisserie after studying for nine months under Le Cordon Bleu Dusit Culinary School in Bangkok and Tokyo.
