According to the "Voices of Malaysian Women on Discrimination & Harassment in the Workplace" survey undertaken by Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) in collaboration with research agency Vase.ai, 56% of Malaysian women have experienced at least one form of gender discrimination in the workplace.
This includes being questioned about or receiving comments pertaining their marital status or plans to start a family, being passed over for promotion in favour of less qualified colleagues and being asked to do tasks that are not asked of male colleagues - preparing refreshments.
The survey based on the insights from a total of 1,010 Malaysian women sought to understand the prevalence and experiences faced by women in the workplace with regards to harassment and discrimination.
Among the results from the survey highlighted by Natasha Dandavati, WAO's Head of Campaigns are as follows:-
1. 47% women were asked about their marital status during a job interview.
2. 1 in every 5 women were questioned on their ability to perform certain tasks based on their gender.
3. About 55% of women said their child’s father was given either less than one week of paternity leave or no paternity leave at all, with 55% of women indicating that the given paternity leave was insufficient.
According to WAO, the results obtained from the survey support the crucial need for policy change, including passing amendments to the Employment Act 1955 in the next parliament session. Sumitra Visvanathan, WAO's Executive Director said, "There is a need for provisions to protect against [gender] discrimination, as well as for greater maternity leave, paternity leave and other policies that allow for more equal sharing of care responsibilities that facilitate women staying in the workforce."
In 2019, the World Bank reported that the female labour participation rate was 55% whereas the male labour participation rate was 81%. It is eminent that the female labour participation rate is fairly low in comparison to the male counterpart. But what are the reasons for women's low participation in the workforce? Discrimination, harassment, the gender wage gap to name a few. These bring about a negative impact to female employees as well as women seeking employment.
Aligned with the rollout of the survey findings, WAO reiterated its call for five key amendments to the Employment Act 1955 in the upcoming November parliament session;
Introduce at least seven days of paid paternity leave in the private sector;
Extend paid maternity leave in the private sector from 60 to 90 days;
Introduce prohibitions against discrimination based on gender, race, religion and disability status for both employees and job seekers;
Introduce the right to request for flexible working hours and be protected from discrimination as a result of doing so; and
Strengthen protections against sexual harassment in the Employment Act 1955, in addition to passing an independent Sexual Harassment Act.
The survey was administered to Vase.ai, a leading digital consumer research company in Malaysia. Since its establishment, it has provided consumer insights to more than 100 enterprises and GLCs and its public opinion data is frequently published in major publications.
The full survey results are available at: https://vase.ai/data-trust/projects/womens-rights/summary/?cues=1. As for WAO's report on the survey, you can access to it here: https://wao.org.my/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/WAO_VASEAI_WorkplaceDiscriminationSurvey.pdf
The issues of gender discrimination and harassment in Malaysia are pretty rampant. It is important that we address such issues when it comes up. As soon as we address and recognise such issues as a problem, take a step forward to tackle it. Women are expected to to go above and beyond for acknowledgement in a work setting in comparison to their male counterparts. Such discrimination must be addressed and improved to reduce the apparent gender discrimination at a professional level. As for sexual harassment, is important that companies highlight what counts as acts of sexual harassment and introduce prohibitions for it as a measure of prevention for unforeseen circumstances.
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