Democracy is not a foreign concept in the 21st century. Reigning champion as most countries’ governing system, democracy seems to ride on the notion of equality. At the same time, it doesn’t really seem to represent each and every individual equally. We could look back on the origin of democracy itself, in ancient Greek, where only males could participate in it. Centuries later, even though certain circumstances have improved, most women are still sidelined in politics. We’ve heard of campaigns for more women’s representation and participation in politics, but why does it truly matter? Why would having more girl bosses in the political arena be important in Malaysia? 

The full cabinet list was announced just two weeks prior to this writing. We all could see how incredibly disappointing women’s political representation is in our nation, just by seeing how many female ministers are included in the cabinet. To be exact, out of the 28 ministerial positions in the cabinet, only five portfolios are held by women ministers. According to an analysis by New Straits Time, there has never been more than five female ministers serving in a Malaysian cabinet. This applies both in the past and in the present. Data shows that women make up 48.64% of the nation’s population, whereas the percentage of women ministers in the cabinet is 17.85%. In a numerical sense, this data proves that equality is a concept lost in oblivion in our society. To put this into perspective, while women make up almost half of the population, only a fifth of women are put in powerful positions of decision-making for the country. In short, women are underrepresented in our country. One might argue that although this leadership bias has persisted for years since the first cabinet was formed, women have still been looked after. This is true to an extent. Malaysia has definitely done well in improving access towards education and healthcare for women, the two areas deemed most important in society. However, the lack of political participation and representation still perseveres, with apparent implications.

For one, as of 2021, Malaysia has one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Southeast Asia while women make up 55% of the nation’s workforce. It goes without saying now, that although policy-making commanded by men could definitely produce beneficial policies for women, not all are motivated by women’s best interests. However, leadership in politics steered by women could represent what really concerns the particular community. Just recently this year, the Deputy Minister of Law, YB Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, presented her case to the parliament subsequently leading up to the passing of the anti-stalking bill, which made stalking an offence punishable by law. The passing of this bill seeks to protect victims of stalking, with women making up most, but not all, victims of stalking. This particular circumstance in itself shows how women’s representation in politics could helm decision-making towards important issues concerning women’s well-being. Generally, with both genders equally represented in politics, more diversity is to be expected in ideas towards the well-being of society. 

From the manifestation of the point before, it may suggest that change for women could happen when there are few women ministers too, as long as there are women involved in policymaking. Contrary to this, numbers actually do matter. Having a larger number of women in the parliament itself creates a sense of solidarity, whereby women could confidently initiate decision-making towards women’s well-being. This is not to say having fewer women in parliament will make it impossible for women’s rights to advance; instead, it will make discussions towards the advancement of women’s rights less frequent. This might be due to the fact that the minority gender in the cabinet would be more subjected to expectations from the majority, which is made up of men. Thus, steering debates into lenses which fit the majority’s preference. 

Can we conclude, then, that all would be well once we get more women representation and participation in politics? This could be the end of the story if the journey in achieving this is not so rocky. Just like how gravity pulls us down to earth, there seem to be forces pulling down the effort of women’s advancement towards the nation’s leadership. Most of which stem from the embedded patriarchal values in our society. 

The good news is there has been effort both globally and nationally to improve women’s involvement in this context. The global standards mark has been set at 30% on women’s involvement in political and public life. Using this threshold, we seem to fall short of the target and this would mean more effort is required to push our nation towards the goal. However, it seems that all hope is not lost. Political analysts believe we are moving in the right direction, and there is progress, albeit not substantial just yet. As of the last cabinet announcement, when we were presented with only five women ministers, there has been progressive change in terms of visibility, whereby these women ministers are finally entrusted with important portfolios, namely the Education Ministry, the Health Ministry, as well as Law and Institutional Reform Ministry. These positive changes are undeniably important as marks of progress, but this does not mean the effort should stop here.

 Empowering women to take on leadership positions should start from the political base itself, which is within the political party. According to a political analyst, the nature of politics within the party itself is mostly male-dominated. A male-dominated political party will be more likely to send in male candidates, decreasing the chances of having women parliament members. Since the first step of contesting to be a decision maker itself requires an individual to win a seat in the election, political parties sending mostly male candidates to election obviously will hinder the advancement of women to win a seat in parliament. 

The fight to shine light on the importance of women’s presence and participation in politics has not ended; instead, it is just getting started. Here’s to showing the world that female leaders are just as capable as their male counterparts. They just need a chance to be able to show how they, too, can get the work done.

References:

• Analysis: Women holding some key ministries a good start | Bernama

• More political will required to meet 30% women candidates quota | Fatimah Zainal
• Malaysia’s Global Gender Gap score in wage equality for similar work from 2012 to 2021 | Statista
• Media Statement: Malaysian Women In The Workforce | Shareen Shariza Dato’ Abdul Ghani
• Anti-stalking bill to be tabled this year, says deputy minister | Bernama
• Anti-stalking Bill passed unanimously in Parliament | R. Loheswar
• Why Women’s Representation Matters | Fawcett Society 
• Malaysia Still Far Behind Women’s Political Participation | Nur Zaalikhaa’ Zainal Abidin
• Women in Politics: Reflections from Malaysia | Wan Azizah