How Asian women are challenging bias to carve out entrepreneurial success, from Singapore to India

As a flight attendant for Singapore Airlines, Kay Cheong was staring at an abyss when she was forced to leave her job because she was expecting a baby.

With co-founder and a young parent Elena Kwa, she launched the Immigrations People, which has now carved a niche after many ups and downs.

“It’s like a dream to be a boss of my own company. I really believe that it can change my family’s circumstances,” said Cheong, 36, adding that she did not come from a well-off family.

These included limited access to finance, a lack of network and mentorship, less access to training and education, and cultural biases that led to gender discrimination, he said.

Women entrepreneurs often faced doubt about their work commitment because they had to support their families, but Tan said rays of hope were breaking out as companies in Asia were “quickly catching up” to the diversity standards in the West.

“Gender gaps in education have narrowed very rapidly over the last decade, which means there is now a large new cohort of highly educated women who are just starting to engage with the labour market,” said Dawn Holland, director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics, which last month published a report on the gender gap.

Shifting attitudes towards remote and hybrid work have opened up a world of new opportunities, especially for those seeking to balance other responsibilities such as childcare or elderly care, she added.

After working as a lawyer with one of the biggest law firms in Singapore, Shulin Lee felt trapped in a toxic work culture when she joined a UK-headquartered recruitment firm with an excessive drinking culture and where employees were constantly in ruthless competition.

Lee, who helped establish the firm in Singapore, decided to