XN000022-1996-12-05 — Page 26

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This review of our legislation and everything that we are doing in the context of that review, we will complete before July 1, 1997. So, insofar as the Government is concerned, we have done and will continue to ensure that these freedoms are protected and defended after 1997. But that said, I think that the practitioners, whether it is proprietors of newspapers, reporters, journalists, communicators like yourself, also have a very, very important role to play.

Now, we do not wish to see self-censorship creeping into the press, the media, after 1997, and this is where I think the practitioners themselves do have a role to play in preserving and protecting the integrity of their own professions.

Question: I would like to ask you as a woman in the work place in 1996. how do you manage to balance your home life and your work life?

Chief Secretary: By trial and error. I can tell you that it isn't easy, but I have, after all, had 34 years of experience. I joined the Hong Kong Government in 1962. And I do often feel that it is much harder for a woman to hold down a career and at the same time still be able to perform reasonably well your other roles as a wife and as a mother. But I think it is a choice that cach of us has to make. And that choice does not necessarily lead, in my view, to coming down in favour of a career and neglecting your other duties. If you choose a career then I think both partners to a marriage have a responsibility of ensuring that the other responsibilities are discharged and discharged well.

I think in Hong Kong, women are probably in a better position to balance a career with the demands of a wife and mother because first of all we do have the availability of domestic-help. But more importantly, the extended family system in Hong Kong does provide very immediate support for the working mother, particularly when the children are young.

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I have to say that when my children were young it was sometimes extremely difficult, particularly in certain jobs for example, when I was in the Finance Branch and having to work on estimates until near enough midnight. It was a very, very difficult period. So in that context, I also believe that it is crucially important to have a very understanding and supportive husband. A husband who understands and who will not try and make you feel that you are always having to make very, very hard choices, and a husband who is willing to share family responsibilities with you. I don't think I could have survived so far without the understanding and support of my husband, so I think that that is crucially important.

But at the end of the day, I think it also depends on the individual woman organising her time in such a way that you try reasonably to balance all your responsibilities. I don't think you can expect to get the best of all worlds but if you manage your time well and with a degree of support, I think you can probably manage to discharge most of your responsibilities reasonably well. But it is very much by trial and error and learning to adjust your time and your priorities.