The participation of Malaysian women in the labour force is reported to be at 55.6 per cent.
“This is comparatively low to our neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Australis which stands at 69.7 per cent and 73.8 per cent respectively,” said Secretary General of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, YBhg. Dr. Maziah Che Yusoff.
This was said in her speech during the closing ceremony of National Women’s Symposium 2021 which was conducted virtually on 25th August 2021.
She added that long term solutions are needed to balance out the participating gap of women in the labour force, so that women’s potential can be maximised in developing the country.
Aside from that, Dr. Maziah added that there is a need to adopt a more aggressive approach to increase the participation of women in leadership as decision makers.
“I am confident that with more participation of women as decision makers in any organizations, be it the public or private sectors, it will bring positive impacts that are significant in every aspect of the national development,” she said.
The symposium aims to produce a resolution that will be used as inputs and resources for the improvement of the existing National Women’s Policy as well as to further strengthen women’s empowerment agenda.
Under the symposium, it was revealed that there are six main areas that need to be addressed and strengthened to improve women’s well -being.
Dr. Maziah said that the six main areas became the basis of discussion and debate to produce inputs and ideas in the symposium.
The six main areas are;
- Economics
- Education
- Health
- Leadership
- Security
- Law
From the symposium, it was revealed that from the health cluster that about half a million or 2.3 per cent of women is experiencing depression (National Health and Morbidity Survey 2020).
Under leadership cluster, it was revealed that women only occupied 33 seats in parliament.
Under security cluster, a total of 62, 721 calls received vis the Talian Kasih hotline came from women dealing with domestic violence and child abuse from January to July 2021.
The symposium which was participated by 500 participants from various background such as academicians, corporate bodies, government officers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to analyse and discuss the challenges and proposed solutions to improve the National Women’s Policy.
With the theme ‘Realizing Women’s Empowerment’, the symposium was organized by the Department of Women Development, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) from 23rd to 25th August 2021.
