Leadership And Gender: Women's Political Participation In Malaysia (1980-2013) (original) (raw)

Can Women in Malaysian be a Changemakers? Political Involvement and Decision-making

International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2022

The National Women Policy aims to prepare a conducive environment for women that are more women-friendly to elevate their status in all aspects including politics. However, despite the statement, women are still lacking behind in the political sector in Malaysia. Indeed, the Malaysian women have been shown to outperform men in the academic and even professional job market. Despite the supposed superiority of Malaysian women's intellectual abilities, the number of women who are allowed to participate in nation building is abysmally low. Malaysian women are absent from many leadership positions, the economic market, politics, and/or decision-making. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the challenges women face in terms of political participation and decision-making. The data were randomly distributed to the public to obtain an unbiased result from the community in Malaysia. Approximately 200 respondents were contacted through WhatsApp, email, and other platforms, y...

An Assessment Into Women Political Participation in Malaysian Democratic Governance

e-Bangi, 2021

This study assessed the state of women political participation in Malaysian democratic governance. Using descriptive qualitative method, secondary resources like academic books and journal articles, as well as liberal democratic theory as a parameter for analysis to create linkages for sound conclusion, several results emerged. Emerged results disclosed that Malaysian women from the 1957 independence, enjoy their right to vote and contest during elections. Article 8(2) also guaranteed gender equality and avoidance of discrimination or marginalization of citizens including women in their pursuit of political life. Results also showed upward movement or increase in the number of Malaysian women who occupy prominent political offices like the Deputy Prime Minister, Parliamentarians, Members of the Cabinet, Anti-corruption Head, Ministers and Deputy Ministers after the 2018 general elections. Notwithstanding the above upward movement in representation, result also showed that Malaysian women still face a lot of challenges in pursuing their political interest. These challenges as disclosed include male dominance emanating from cultural and religious beliefs, lack of family and spouse supports, poor financial support, absence of political training and marginalization from political parties. The negative indices work against women and must be addressed. They are against the ethics of the liberal democratic theory. To address them, the political leaders must adhere to the constitution and the Beijing Conference 30% advocacy to give Malaysian women their rightful place in politics. The study would benefit the political leaders, women, and researchers. There is the need to also study women political representation in other countries of Asia.

Driving from the Backseat: An Exploratory Study of the Dearth of Malaysian Women in Political Decision Making Process

The place of women in decision making at various strata of living has been a front burner issue in the current milieu. Population of women in Malaysia is almost as equal the population of men. The Malaysian women have been found to excel in academic and even professional labour market than the men. Thus, they are naturally imbued with the skills and intellectual capabilities to contribute to the Malaysian national development. Notwithstanding the perceived superiority in the intellectual capability of the Malaysian women, the number of women allowed to participate in nation building in the country is abysmally low. Researches have shown that the women have been facing challenges in assuming political positions where they can adequately and practically contribute to national development. The paper involves an exploratory legal research. Therefore, employing an analysis of both primary and secondary documentary data, the paper investigates the factors that contribute to the inhibition...

Discoursing Women’s Political Participation Towards Achieving Sustainable Development: The Case of Women in Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS)

Kajian Malaysia

Malaysia has been committed to meet its commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. One of the goals is to achieve gender equality. However, in Malaysia, the Global Gender Gap Index which measures gender disparities in economic participation and opportunities, education attainment, health and political empowerment reported that Malaysia ranked at 111 out of 145 countries in 2016. It has fallen far from its overall ranking of 72 in 2006. In terms of political participation, the low score in politics is because of the lack of women in leadership and decision-making positions that dragged down Malaysia's index even though Malaysia had set a target for women to fill 30% or more in decision-making positions. In the recent 14th general election, a total of 252 female candidates named out of the 2,333 parliament and state seats resulted in only 92 female elected representatives. This article provides an overview of women's political participation focusing on members of Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS). There were 30 female respondents interviewed and they were recruited from the two states in Malaysia namely Selangor and Kelantan. It analyses the reasons for women's missing presence at the decision-making level in the party and at national level which contributed to Malaysia's slow achievement of the SDGs. This article will discuss how PAS's organisational structure and women's preference will impose challenges towards Zaireeni Azmi 68 achieving SDG 5. Women themselves determine the level of participation and contributions that they are willing to play in politics.

Muslim-Malay Women in Political Leadership: Navigating Challenges and Shaping the Future

MAZAHIB, 2024

Women's participation in politics, particularly in leadership roles, remains a contentious topic within Muslim communities. This situation is due primarily to the prevalent interpretation that men are inherently more qualified for national leadership positions, as influenced by the patriarchal structure of society and persistent stereotypes that undermine women's capabilities. These cultural and societal barriers hinder women's ascension to the highest echelons of political power, especially in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. This study seeks to analyze Islamic jurisprudence originating from the Quran and hadith interpretation of women's status to address the common misconception that Islam inherently supports misogyny. It then contextually puts the analysis of Malay women's obstacles in achieving political leadership in Malaysia and Indonesia. This socio-legal research is aimed at understanding the complexities of gender-based challenges in political settings caused by prevailing non-moderate interpretation of Sharia sources combined with patriarchal culture in the Malay world. It reveals that historically, in Malay, women have been entrusted with national leadership responsibilities. Similarly, from an Islamic perspective, there appears to be a misinterpretation of hadith regarding the prohibition of appointing women as national leaders. Thus, this traditional culture that permits women to hold leadership positions must be re-polished because women can utilize their liberties, including leadership, previously denied by non-moderate views.

Women’s Political Participation in Decision Making in Sarawak, Malaysia

This article examines women’s political participation in the decision making level in Sarawak politics. It aims to contribute to existing resource on women's political participation in Sarawak and Malaysia in general. The objectives are to produce a comprehensive gender ranking generated data that may support the clamor for more participation of women as state legislative assembly and parliament in Malaysian politics, particularly women as minister, deputy minister and assistant minister in Sarawak. Hence, one of the justifications for this empirical study is that Malaysian women, in contrast to many women in developed and developing nations, have made very little significant progress with regards to their political participation. In many ways, the state of Sarawak has championed this gender division in political participation. For example, there have been three women ministers and two assistant ministers (in Sarawak) from 1970 to 2013. Thus, this study explores the dynamic that deters gender-equal political participation in Sarawak. In fact, both the primary and secondary data employed in this study clearly indicate that political participation and placing in Sarawak (and Malaysia) has precise gender differences. This is more obvious at the pinnacle of the political structure(s) of the core policy makers.

Politicizing Malay-Muslim Womanhood: Women's Empowerment as a Political Platform in the Run-Up to the 13th General Elections

Women are a focal point in Malaysian politics, particularly when there are concerns about support within the electorate. The United Malays Nationalist Organisation (UMNO), the dominant party in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, has been particularly adept at emphasizing the role of and opportunities for women in the party’s early history. Since the 2008 general elections, when BN lost its parliamentary two-thirds majority, UMNO leader and Prime Minister Najib Razak has sought to “win back” support. One of his strategies to do so involved manufacturing inseparable links between UMNO, BN and a progressive outlook with multicultural appeal. This strategy is most evident in how the Najib administration has approached the issue of the status of women in Malaysia. This paper will discuss how the theme of women’s empowerment was developed as a platform to gather support for UMNO and BN in the run-up to the 13th general elections. By tracing the history of women’s roles within UMNO party politics, this paper will firmly situate these developments in the context of the repetition of a particular pattern when it comes to women’s participation and representation in politics. The paper will also argue that despite the occasional deference to the notion of gender equality, this acknowledgement has been merely perfunctory. The increasing prevalence of Malay nationalism as a masculine ethnoreligious concept in Malaysia means that Malay-Muslim women in particular will continue to be regarded as belonging primarily in supporting roles and the private realm.

Gender and Governance: The Politics of Federalism in Malaysia

2012

The discourse on gender and governance has diverged in predominantly two separate directions. On the one hand, there is almost an exclusive discussion on women in politics where much of the focus is on the inclusion of women in the corridors of political power through the external utilisation of quotas in the electoral process. On the other hand, the literature on gender and organisations focuses on the inner mechanisms of the organisation without much attention to the broader political connections in society. This paper argues that both internal and external articulations are important and that attempts to examine these articulations in the context of the state of Penang, Malaysia, where the politics of federalism intersect with gender and governance issues at the level of local government are worth noting.