Gender Inequality and Women in Malaysia

It might sound awkward that a man is talking about gender equality but just to clear this, in Emma Watson’s words, “Men, gender equality is your issue too”. I will take that invitation and begin to talk about gender inequality and women in Malaysia.

Let’s look at the Gender Gap Report which first started in 2006 and look at how we fared in 2014.

Gender Gap Report	Ranking (Malaysia)
Rankings – categories	2006	2009	2014
Overall	72	100	107
Economic participation and opportunity	68	103	104
Educational attainment	62	77	100
Health and survival	80	103	102
Political empowerment	90	113	132

I am not sure how to explain the rankings nor do I have the time to go through the complex methodologies used but in relative terms against other countries, perhaps what I can conclude is

• we are progressing but at a slow pace
• male domination and chauvinism still exists

Let’s try to have a fair assessment on where we stand with local statistics.

In our workforce, Malaysia has come a long way since 1982. There were less than 1.8 mil women employed in 1982 with a labour force participation rate of 44.5% and unemployment rate of 4.6%.

But in the most recent 2013 statistics, we saw the number of women employed almost tripled to about 5 mil with a labour force participation rate of 52.4% and unemployment rate of 3.4%.

This means that more than half of women of working age are employed and this is a first in the Najib Administration and the only time we have breached 50% since 1982.

I believe it will most likely remain at this band of 50%-60%.

Another recent encouraging news we read was from Hays Asia Salary Guide 2015. The employment of women in senior management roles in Malaysia has actually increased from 29 per cent in 2014 to 34 percent in 2015.

But if anyone wants to be negative about this, we can. Put this in another way, after so long, we still see men dominating the senior management roles.

In political leadership, the numbers are disappointing. I realized that there are only two women Ministers in our Cabinet - Nancy Shukri (Minister in PM's Department) and Rohani Abd Karim (Women, Family and Community Development Minister). In Penang's State Exco, there's only Chong Eng. In Selangor's State Exco, they have two - Daroyah Alwi and Elizabeth Wong. In Kelantan's State Exco, they have one women Exco - Mumtaz Md Nawi.

We can perhaps understand why if we look at the pattern in the GE 13 election results. In the recent 13th General Election, we saw a total of 168 female candidates named out of the 727 Parliament and State Seats. 71 women candidates were from Barisan Nasional, 77 from Pakatan Rakyat while the rest were independents or non BN and non PR. That is just 23%.

The results? 80 female elected representatives only. That’s a winning rate of 48% and participation rate of 11% in our houses of representatives. That’s not good. How did this happen?

Here’s my message to the voters. If gender was a key criterion when you voted in the 13th GE, perhaps you should do us a favour and stay at home in the next election.

In the Federal Government, we have seen a marked improvement where women today hold almost all of the key posts - from international trade and economic planning to welfare, education and healthcare. We have a total of 11 top ranked women in Government today. Perhaps, I should name them here:

Name	Position
Tan Sri Mazidah Abd Majid	Deputy Secretary General Cabinet, Prime Minister’s Department
Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad	Secretary General Education
Datuk Farida Mohd Ali	Secretary General Health
Datuk Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria	Secretary General International Trade and Industry
Datuk Loo Took Gee	Secretary General Energy, Green Technology and Water
Datuk Seri Dr Rahamat Bivi binti Yusof	Director General Economic Planning Unit
Dato' Sri Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur	Secretary General Science, Technology and Innovation
Dato' Sri Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad	Secretary General Communications and Multimedia
Dato' Seri Arpah Abd Razak	Secretary General Housing and Local Government
Dato' Hasanah Ab Hamid	Director General Research, Prime Minister's Department
Dato' Sabariah Hassan	Secretary General Women, Family & Community Development

I have personally worked with a few of them in the list above plus a few other Director Generals of other Federal Government agencies. They are more than capable to lead!

But the Government can’t do this alone. It is as good as banking on only one sports legend – Nicol David – to carry the Jalur Gemilang in the sports arena when there are dozens if not a hundred different types of sport.

Based on a 2013 survey by Talent Corp, only 8% of board members of all listed companies were women and this is a long way off the Government's target of 30% by 2016. Why is it a Government target, I’m not sure, but although we must not forego meritocracy for the sake of meeting the numbers, any form of gender inequality on equal merits must not be tolerated especially by the private sector.

Perhaps what is lacking in Malaysia is an inspirational icon who can lead, educate and champion the cause for equality.

The fight against gender inequality must go on, especially in Malaysia. We cannot afford to slide further in the Gender Gap Report or slack in other initiatives.

Not just because Kofi Annan said that, “Gender equality is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance”.

To me, it is about respect.

Happy International Women’s Day. #makeithappen