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When one argues for gender empowerment, one would usually do so on the basis of equality of outcome or opportunity. Both cannot be achieved at the same and in fact, complete equality of either case separately is impossible. 

Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist, and his wife Rose Director, considers the following anecdote in their book ‘Free to Choose’ when explaining why equality of opportunity is impossible;

“One child is born blind, another with sight. One child has parents deeply concerned about his welfare who provide a background of culture and understanding, another has dissolute, improvident parents. Children at birth clearly do not have identical opportunities in relation to abilities or environment” 

Research by the Westminster Business School Team as published by the UK’s Department for Business Innovation Skills shows that when considering gender diversity in the workplace, companies with greater race and gender diversity on corporate boards performed better than the rest – but such findings “could not argue for diversity having a direct causal impact on performance.”

So how is it then, that greater gender equality can “enhance economic productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions and policies more representative” as stated by the World Bank’s report on Gender Equality and Development?

Although such a positive impact among businesses may not be solely due to improvements in equality of opportunity as there are multiple factors contributing to performance, there is no denying that an increase in opportunities for women will benefit the whole economy. 

The Malaysian Context

The World Bank finds that that if “all economic barriers are removed for women in Malaysia, the country’s income per capita could grow by 26.2 percent” – implying an average income gain of RM 9,400. They suggest that women’s economic empowerment will require better access to education, labour force participation, and employment. Looking at these three factors individually, education in Malaysia seems to already skew heavily towards women.

Penang Institute’s senior analyst, Negin Vaghefi, finds in her research that more than 63 percent of university graduates in Malaysia are women. Female students outperform men in all key subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science, and Bahasa Malaysia. This might explain why women dominate in enrolment into public universities for 8 out of 9 of the fields of study considered by the Ministry of Education.

The trend seems to be the same in private universities – Chang-Da Wan noted in his article  that 55 percent of the student population are female. Thus, education is no longer the most significant factor in explaining the gender pay gap whereby although Malaysian women hold 55 percent of ‘professional occupations’, their monthly salary is 14 percent lower, even in professions where men are outnumbered. However, Vaghefi notes in her summary that the pay gap is mainly “due to non-discriminatory factors, such as labour market structures.” She suggests that “it may be that within the same occupation, women occupy positions while men hold senior ones.” If such differences were due to the case of merit, it would be perfectly acceptable and in fact desirable for there to be differences in outcome even if there were equality of opportunity to gain skills to enter the workplace. But the problem then occurs when there are barriers in access to the workplace, evident in the fact that in 2018, 61 percent of the labour force are composed of men, where only 50.9 percent of the female population are participating in the workforce compared to a labour force participation rate of 77.4 percent for men. 

So what is stopping our women in participating in the workforce? Vaghefi notes that there are traditional and cultural barriers. Professor Sanggaran suggested that “having children has a negative penalty on women.” Focus study groups shows that many women are concerned with the care of their children at home. Working part-time or quitting work altogether to take care of their children is a norm amongst women in Malaysia. Many women are ‘forced’ to quit their jobs either due to a lack of childcare support, high transit costs, or lack of trust in available childcare options. The data on this is clear – 31.4 percent of the working age population who are out of the labour force are housewives and students. The infographic below reflects such workplace discrimination – Jerene Ang uses this infographic in the article, which states that “the decision to have a family still has a great impact on mums than dads.”

*The infographic indicates that for Malaysia, 55 percent of mums found that they their decision to have a family has affected their career options and that the same percentage had more issues when returning to work compared to dads.

Thus, it is the job of the government to ensure that women are adequately supported when they decide to start a family. Not only should we support women in their decision to have children and raise them full-time, the same grace should be extended to men. We must learn that it is not ‘un-manly’ if a man’s calling is to serve in the homes of their families and to care for their children. So let us put our money where our mouths are. A radical idea along this line might be to suggest some form of benefit for the partner who chooses to stay at home, such as by getting paid a fixed amount a month, with no conditions attached. There should be more accessible and affordable childcare programs to allow parents to have flexible working hours or even to have the opportunity for both parents to return to work after taking time out for their family. There must be a cultural shift towards celebrating our men and women in all that they do. In order to do this, we must allocate the very signalling tool which the market responds to towards supporting initiatives like the above: and this tool is money.

Does the 2020 Budget support our men and women

An NST article noted that the All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) has applauded Budget 2020 which it feels is aimed at stimulating the economy, generating growth, and improving the quality of life of all Malaysians, where “it was clear that the government had placed a lot of thought and consideration into the allocation of funds.”

Such consideration includes:

• RM 10 million for the development of female athletes and RM 299 million for the Sports for All Programme; 
• The introduction of Malaysians@Work Programme in which women aged between 30 and 50 years old that return to the workforce after at least a year, will enjoy a RM500 incentive from the government for two years, and RM300 for employers, as well as income tax exemption until 2023;
• RM200 million for SME Bank for women entrepreneurs;
• Employment Act 1955 review to include increasing maternity leave to 90 days from 2021, increasing overtime qualification for those earning up to RM4,000 a month, improving sexual harassment complaint system, and strengthening provisions against discrimination in jobs according to race, religion, or gender.

Although many of these allocations may seem to benefit women more than men and in fact this is the case in these handpicked considerations, we must come to accept and appreciate the fact that when our women do well, our men will do well.

Overall, the 2020 Budget is one that fosters an inclusive community and is a step in the right direction to ensure equality of opportunity as it tends to include reforms to the workplace and allocations to support many rural areas which men predominantly work in.

What has UKEC done to champion gender equality?

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.ukeconline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Board-of-Directors-PANXVII-2020.pdf” title=”Board of Directors PANXVII 2020″]

At UKEC, we take great pride in the talent among all genders and all races of Malaysian students studying in the UK. We aim to support such talents with opportunities to develop their skills and foster a sense of belonging. An example of how we do this is through our upcoming flagship event, Projek Amanat Negara – a not-for-profit event that was designed to become a platform for non-partisan scholarly discussions and intellectual discourse between leading figures of the political, social, and economic fields and students. Bus subsidies are provided to ensure better access to the 17th edition of PAN. Our theme this year is “Malaysia and Malaysians, Transcending Boundaries”, with one of our focus topics being ‘Speak Out, Youth’ – a crucial discussion in the advocacy of equality of opportunity. 

We are also proud to state that our board of directors for PAN XVII this year is a women-majority board with a ratio of 5 to 2

As a man and as a Malaysian, I end with this note: in the words of Dr Jordan Peterson, it is about time that “men grow the hell up” and do better in supporting the great women of our country – knowing that in doing so, we set a better example for the men and women that will come after us.