2001 Malaysia Study Tour Report

Women and Gender

We have an excellent learning experience in The University of Sains Malaysia. From the lecture about women and gender, we learnt the whole picture of Malaysian women including background information, population and employment, education, marriage and the family, and the National Policy on Women etc.

Population and Employment

Women constitute almost half of the total population. During the half year of 1997, women made up 48.8% of the total population. Women are projected to constitute 50% and 49.9% of the total population in 2000and 2020 respectively. Moreover, rates for women's labor force participation is 44.2%. Women account for more than 60% of unpaid family workers.

When it comes to the opportunities of women in employment, there is formal equality in opportunities and access but substantive equality may be hindered by cultural considerations. For example, men are more likely able to give promotion. Equal pay for equal work is not clearly legislated but contained in administrative directive in 1969 for government employees. Pension Act 1970 guarantees equal mandatory retirement age and pension rights. There is protective discrimination with regard to hours of work. Women cannot be required to work in agricultural and industrial undertaking bet. 10 pm and 5 am unless with permission of Minister; women cannot be employed in underground working. Women are protected from dismissal during maternity leave.

Education

Women enjoy relatively good access to education. In 1995, they made up 49.5% of the enrolment of students at government-assisted universities. Half of women labor force possessed secondary education and 11% had tertiary education in 1995; 12.6% did not receive any formal education.

Although there is formal equality in access and opportunities to education, cultural and economic considerations may limit opportunities of women to education. Besides, the cultural considerations and silent policies on students intake may also shape women's choice of subjects and areas in education. In 1993, less that half of women enroll in the sciences and 19% of them enroll in technological subjects at government-assisted universities. In 1993, although women accounted for half of enrolment in upper secondary schools, only one-third were enrolled in technical schools and a quarter enrolled in vocational schools.

Marriage and the family

Average age at marriage of women in 1991 is 24 years old. Past research shows disproportionately high divorce rate amongst Malay women. On the other hand, males are still culturally accepted as heads of households. Child-rearing and domestic responsibilities are largely the burden of women. Moreover, the unilateral divorce rights are formally or informally pervasive in all major cultures. Generally speaking, the marital problems affect the Malaysian women more than the Malaysian men. For instances, the domestic violence, the desertion problem, failure to pay maintenance and polygamy.

There are many problems faced by Malaysian women in marriage and family. For instances, the domestic violence, desertion and failure of husband to give maintenance, husband's infidelity, access to legal protection in divorce and ancillary matters and property rights.

In the matter of domestic violence, it affects substantially more women than men in Malaysia and reflects the cultural belief in male dominance. In WAO National Research on Battered Women 1994, 58% of respondents thought that physical abuse was acceptable when wife, for example, failed to obey husband. Indeed, the violence suffered by women victims at the hands of their male counterparts are more grievous and persistent than that suffered by men from actions of women. Women victims of domestic violence have difficult access to protection and legal assistance even after the legislation of the Domestic Violence Act 1994.

Conclusion

To sum up, there is a failure to provide sex as a basis for prohibiting discrimination under the constitution. Besides, there are lack of substantive commitment to international obligation on women and lack of effective legislation especially the sexual offences, sexual harassment, domestic violence and divorce as well. In addition, the Malaysian government used the separate substantive and procedural laws in marital and family matters for Muslims and non-Muslims. Unfortunately, socio-cultural attitudes that discriminate Malaysian women are slow to change.

In our group's opinion, the situation of Hong Kong is quite different from that of Malaysia. The major difference between Hong Kong and Malaysia is the latter's religious influences towards the mind of Malaysians. The concepts from the religious indoctrinate the specific social norms and standard for Malaysians. In Hong Kong, there is no such thing of national religion and its citizens can have as much freedom for choosing any religion as they like. On the other hand, in Malaysian, the Malaysian Government and people emphasize the harmony of various cultures and religions rather than the unity of all religions. It means that Malaysians respect different kinds of religious even though they do not share the similar perception about the gender equality among them. In Malaysia, religions influence all aspects of the society e.g. for education, women have fewer chances to enter labor force after they are graduated. In family, Malaysian women are perceptualized to stay at home, especially for Muslims, polygamy still exists today. It is so common to see Muslim women wear thick clothes to cover nearly all part of their bodies in hot summer while Muslim men do not need to do so. For employment, Malaysian women have limited entries to the labor force, limited working hour, lower payment and working conditions than Malaysian men do. For instance, Malaysian Government always takes account of religious consideration in vital politics. They never put gender issues in major context of national decision-making. That is why Malaysian women have lower status than that of Hong Kong and the sex discrimination is not clear in there. Generally speaking, the discussion about gender issues is more open in Hong Kong than in Malaysia. Lacks of influence of religions, women in Hong Kong have relatively higher social status than that of Malaysia. From this trip in Malaysia, we can learn the general situation of Malaysia in a greater depth and know the cultures of those Malaysians in a broaden sense.

Eva, Kris, Tracy