Aline Wong (born Kan Lai Chung, in 1941) is a

Singaporean Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, I ...

sociologist and former politician. She was one of the first women

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

members in Singapore, elected in 1984. She went on to have a career in both politics and education. In 2001, she retired from politics, but continued to be active in the community and in education. In 2015, she became the first woman in Singapore to hold the position of

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

, working at

SIM University SIM University (UniSIM) was a private university in Singapore between 2005 and 2017. The university was established and managed under the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM). It was the only private university in Singapore after Nanyang Uni ...

Biography

Wong was born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in 1941. Wong studied

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

and worked on issues involving the way Singapore's families were changing and how women were becoming involved in different areas of culture and the

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...

. Wong started her academic career as a lecturer at the

University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the ...

(NUS) in 1971. Wong and

Vivienne Wee Vivian (and variants such as Vivien and Vivienne) is a given name, and less often a surname, derived from a Latin name of the Roman Empire period, masculine '' Vivianus'' and feminine '' Viviana'', which survived into modern use because it is the ...

started the first

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

class in Singapore at NUS in 1987. Wong became a fellow at the

Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public a ...

in 2002. Wong became an academic adviser for

(UniSIM) starting in 2005. In 2015, she became the first woman named as

of UniSIM and the first woman chancellor in education throughout all of Singapore. In 1984, Wong, Dixie Tan and Yu-Foo Yee Shoon became the first women elected to Singapore's Parliament. Wong was a member of the

People's Action Party The People's Action Party ( abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) a ...

(PAP) and represented

Changkat Changkat Kruing is a small village in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia. This small village is located between Ayer Tawar and Pantai Remis which is 20 km from Ayer Tawar and 14 km from Pantai Remis. Dinding River passes by the vil ...

. From 1988 to 2001, she represented Tampines GRC. In Parliament, she worked to advance issues that affected the lives of women and advocate for women's equality in public life. PAP's Women's Wing was run by Wong until 2001. Wong also become the Minister of State for Health in 1990 and five years later rose to the position of Senior Minister of State, where she focused on education. In 2001, she retired from working in politics. She worked on the

Housing and Development Board The Housing & Development Board (HDB) (; ms, Lembaga Perumahan dan Pembangunan; ta, வீடமைப்பு வளர்ச்சிக் கழகம்) or often referred to as the Housing Board, is a statutory board under the M ...

(HDB) as chair between 2003 and 2007. Wong was also sent as the Women's Rights Representative from Singapore to the

ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women The ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women (ACWC) is a part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and was created in 2010 in order to develop policies and programs to benefit women and children in cou ...

(ACWC) in Children in 2010. Wong was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame in 2014.

References

External links

Speech by Aline Wong (2000)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Aline 1941 births Hong Kong emigrants to Singapore Singaporean people of Cantonese descent Singaporean women scientists People's Action Party politicians Academic staff of the National University of Singapore Living people Singaporean women in politics Members of the Parliament of Singapore