Here are 5 career challenges women face in Singapore

46.5% points to salary inequality.

According to a study released by LinkedIn, women still face significant career barriers in the workplace. More than half (54.3 per cent) identified the absence of a clear career path as a major challenge.

In addition, inequality in pay (46.5 per cent), the lack of a mentor or role model (42.8 per cent), and the challenges of juggling family life with work (40.3 per cent) were perceived to be major inhibitors of professional success.

Only a small group of professional women feel their appearance plays a major part in their careers today, with 71.5 per cent deeming it irrelevant or having no major impact on their career.

That said, a significant minority of women in several countries – including Singapore (20.0 per cent), Germany (26.3 per cent) and the US (21.0 per cent) – still think that appearance has had a major impact on their careers. In fact, 15.5 per cent of Singaporean respondents had even used it to their advantage.

The study also showed that women in Singapore feel confident about their careers and upbeat about their ability to have fulfilling work and family lives.

Of the 400 respondents in Singapore, 67.3 per cent consider their careers ‘successful’, while two-thirds of them (67.5 per cent) believe that they can ‘have it all: a fulfilling career, relationships and children’.

On the issue of how children will affect career ambitions, however, women have differing views. The study found that two out of three (63.5 per cent) of those currently without children, plan to slow down their careers when they have a child, while the remaining feel they will not.

More than half of the female professionals in Singapore (58.3 per cent) define professional success as having the right balance between work and personal life.