Malaysian women in nation building efforts

Malaysian women given vital roles

Malaysian women are proud to have obtained their rights and still practice their religion in a modest culture. How did this balance happen, and how can other Muslim countries learn from this when it comes to women’s rights?

All Malaysians, regardless of their gender, have roles to play in moving the country forward. Barriers that prevent women from taking part in nation-building efforts have been successfully removed. The communities have reached the consensus that women have vital role to play in ensuring the country achieves progress and prosperity.

Our Vision 2020 stated that Malaysia will achieve a developed nation status while maintaining our religious and culture values. This has always been our faith where progress and values must move forward together hand in hand. By doing so, we make sure that all the people without prejudice of their gender, are able to achieve prosperity while maintaining our religion and values. And again, this has been a unique achievement that we are always proud of.

Malaysian women ranking in Asia Pacific

How Malaysian women has evolved

Women in Malaysia continue to rank as one of the highest scoring countries around the Asia/Pacific region. They are feeling more confident and positive about the role they play within the business and economic environment according to the research study.

According to the fourth annual MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement 2008, released by MasterCard Worldwide today, Malaysia’s score rose to clinch third highest within the Asia/Pacific region, drawing a score of 76.89. Around the region, the overall Index score across the 13 Asia/Pacific markets surveyed dropped from 73.24 in 2007 to 70.38 in 2008.

The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement measures the socioeconomic level of women in relation to men using four key indicators;

• Two showing the ratio of female to male participation in the labor force and tertiary education, are based on source data from national statistics bureaus.

• Two based on survey data, measuring female and male respondent perceptions of whether they hold managerial positions and earn above median income. These subjective factors are a gauge of how positively or negatively respondents feel about their place in the workforce.

The resulting total Index figure obtained is a combined calculation of these indicators showing how close or how far women in each market are to being equal to men. A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favor of males while a score above 100 indicates inequality in favor of females. A score of 100 indicates equality between the sexes.

Within the four indicators, Malaysia’s score are as follows:

• tertiary education (135.02)

• labor force (59.0)

• managerial position (65.91) and

• above median income (47.62).

The progress of Malaysian Women

Recognition given to Malaysian women.

Since independence (August 31, 1957), the role and status of women in Malaysia have undergone a profound change. Women have indeed actively contributed towards the development of the country. Efforts to forge greater gender equality have resulted in women achieving significant progress in key socio-economic areas. Women were also credited with playing a major role in poverty eradication as well as contributing to the country’s GDP.

Malaysian women have benefitted from increasingly access to education and training as indicated by the improvement in their literacy rates, enrolment and achievements at all levels of education. As an example in 1959, there were only 77 female undergraduates or 10.7% of the total student enrolment in the University of Malaya, which was the only university then. Today, female students outnumber the male students by the ratio of 61:39.

The participation of women in the labour force has shown an increasing trend from 30.8% in 1957 to around 46% for the period 2000-2006. In terms of power sharing and decision making in politics and economy, the women share has also indicated a gradual increase. There has also been an increase in women voters, memberships in political parties, political candidates and appointments to elected and appointed offices.

The progress of Malaysian women especially in education and health is indeed remarkable in comparison with the countries in the Asia Pacific Region and Muslim countries. The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific or ESCAP, in its Economic and Social Survey 2007, indicated that gender discrimination in the region is most visible in the low access that women have to education and health services, economic opportunities and political participation. A 30-40% gap in male – female labour force participation is common in the region developing countries.

ESCAP 2007 studies indicated that the economic and social costs of gender discriminations on women is enormous. The Asia Pacific Region for instance is losing USD 42 to 47 billion per year because of restriction on women access to employment opportunities. Gender gap in education on the other hand is costing between USD 16-30 billion per year.

Meanwhile, is some societies in the Muslim World, scant attention given to women has proven detrimental to the development of Muslim societies all over the world. The gender marginalization and consigning women solely to the private domain, deprives their rights to contribute towards development of society.