If I do as much, I earn respect
Her World's Woman of The Year matches the men at work
If the men are going to run 20km, then so am I, never mind that I am a woman.
This was the attitude of Senior Assistant Commissioner (SAC) Zuraidah Abdullah, 53, when she did her training in the Singapore Police Force.
Said the Commander of the Airport Police Division: "Let's say during training, I run 10km and my male counterparts run 20km. My male counterparts aren't going to respect me. But if they know that I can do the same thing as them, then I earn their respect. It has to start there first.
"So if tomorrow, I hold a post and I'm in command, they'll know that I'm there because of my capabilities rather than my gender," she said.
Last night, SAC Zuraidah, who is Singapore's top female police officer, was named Her World magazine's Woman of The Year.
She received her award from Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob at a gala dinner held at the Shangri-La Hotel.
Fashion designer Priscilla Shunmugam, 34, was given the Young Woman Achiever award.
SAC Zuraidah, an engineering graduate from Nanyang Technological University, was a teacher before she saw a TV recruitment advertisement for police officers and signed up.
In her acceptance speech, she credited her husband, former police officer Abdul Aziz Mohamad Noor, for being accommodating to her demanding work schedule.
She also thanked her late parents for bringing her up the same way as her three brothers.
She said: "I learnt from my parents that gender is never an issue and if I want to excel, I have to work hard and not make excuses."
"So if tomorrow, I hold a post and I'm in command, they'll know that I'm there because of my capabilities rather than my gender."
- Senior Assistant Commissioner Zuraidah Abdullah on how she matched her male trainees in all the physical challenges, like running 20km
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