Development in Malaysia

AS and A Level Sociology

Kristina Prodanovic

A report that looks at gender and development in Malaysia

Introduction

The title of my report is: A report that looks at gender and development in Malaysia.

I am going to investigate the roles of men and women in the workforce and what impact it has on the country.

My report is related to the following key ideas:

Theme 6, key idea 2:

My report links to this key idea because my research shows that as well as men, women have a significant role to play in development. However due to gender inequality men and women are treated differently and their roles result in having an impact on development. Malaysia is a country that has been influenced by Asian values; and this has determined the role of women in the domestic/private sphere, whereas men mostly dominate the public sphere.

Theme 2, key idea 1:

My report is related to key idea 1, because the changes that have been made over time, show that the condition has progressed or made significant changes. The inequality in Malaysia varies between the different communities and groups of people. Malaysia has a mixed population, effecting development because the women from China have taken over the Malay women in the work force; due to the fact that china is a country that has developed rather fast meaning Chinese people have higher education levels.

Figure 1: Map of Malaysia

Rationale/Background

Malaysia is a country situated in South East Asia. The country has separated into two main regions- Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysia Borneo which is by the South China Sea. The three most dominant cultures that form the majority of Malaysia’s population are the Malays 50.4%, the Chinese 25% and the Indians 11%. Because of the different ethnic groups, Malaysia has become a multicultural and multilingual society.

During the late 20th century, Malaysia faced rapid development and had experienced an economic boom. The economic growth has transformed Malaysia into a newly industrialised country. As Malaysia is one of the top exporters in natural rubber and palm oil, which is linked to the primary sector, international trade is important to its economy. Manufacturing makes up a major sector of the country’s economy; at one time Malaysia was the largest producer of rubber and palm oil in the world.

However, not only was it the international trade and exportation that rapidly changed Malaysia. The Chinese first set foot in Malaysia in the 15th century but not only until the late 18th century was it that the Chinese community brought development to Malaysia and changed the workforce. Most of the Chinese people had settled in the capital city, Kuala Lumpur where they made the city the way it is today. It is evident that the Chinese are the economic power of Malaysia by the number of migrants in the urban and city area. They have introduced various Chinese traditions as well as being well known for celebrating the Chinese New Year. During the time of the Chinese New Year they put up colourful displays and shows for the population, lighting up the city, attracting many people. Over time, this tradition has carried over to the Malays and Indians of Malaysia.

Indians, the third largest population in Malaysia have also brought the Indian tradition over, celebrating traditional events and visiting temples. As well as the Chinese, the Indians have a big part of the business sector, especially in restaurants. They have introduced a new taste to Malaysia.

The Key Questions I will be investigating are:

What are the differences between the roles of men and women and what effect does this have on development?

How has Malaysia changed over time?

How does the society and environment affect the livelihoods of Malay people?

Methodology

To get as many sources and research possible - relevant to my key questions, all the information obtained throughout consists of secondary research as it was more openly accessed. The use of primary research would not have been significantly considerable as the situation is taking place in Malaysia, therefore it would be difficult for me to conduct the primary data that would provide me with an honest overview of the condition.

Relying on ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

How has Malaysia changed over time?

How does the society and environment affect the livelihoods of Malay people?

Methodology

Relying on secondary data also came about as a problem as some sources were either biased to one side of an argument or were invalid and therefore unreliable.

However to overcome these problems I used the snowballing effect to gather various different articles, NGO’s, statistics etc. This will result in ensuring my investigation is as honest as possible.

Question 1: What are the differences between the roles or men and women and what effect does this have on development?

Figure 2 = Religiosity Table

The table above shows that the majority of Malaysia’s population are Muslim.

Although the many different cultures have been an advantage to Malaysia’s economy there are negative sides that also contribute towards development. The Chinese population have high education skills; most of them are able to speak English which brings them a lot more opportunities for employment.

Figure 3 - Pie Chart Showing the Percentage of Foreign Workers

Due to the fact that they have most of the jobs in the business sector, this means that there are fewer jobs for the Malay’s. According to statistics, women represent 36% of the Malaysian workforce.

Men are known of having higher education levels than women and are sent to work to be able to support the family. On the other hand, women are often at home looking after the family and doing the domestic work.

However, over time Malaysia has started to develop and more women are seen taking further education and pursuing a career as well as taking care of the domestic work. The change in women’s empowerment has helped improved the economy and development of the country.

Figure 4 – Graph on the Level of Education

By looking at the graph, it shows that the participation of girls in the level of education is higher than boys.

Out of nearly 900 million illiterate people in the world, two thirds of them are women. Many families in Malaysia think it is a waste to send their daughters to school rather than their sons mainly because they want their daughters to learn how to be able look after their children.

Today, this has seemed to change. Most girls in today’s society stay in school for as long as they can and work hard to become a higher priority in development.

Women who have education wait longer to get married in order to get a career and have less and healthier children with a higher income to support their family. However there is also a fear that by entitling women to education would mean that by upgrading the status of women, this would affect and interfere in the men’s dominant social structure.

Arguably, as time has changed, machines and new technology have advanced meaning there is no need for high man labour; instead, what is mainly needed in today’s society is professional education of the different field’s individuals want to do.

Figure 5 – Growth rate and total Fertility Rate

With the situation of Malay’s women improving, the graph shows that from 1995 to 2010, the number of children per women had decreased as well as the population growth for Malaysia. Moreover with the result of more women attending schools and receiving education it has clearly showed that the fertility rate standing at roughly 2.3 in 2005-2010 compared to 2.8 in 1995-2000 will have a positive impact on the future economy of Malaysia, and will allow more women to take part in the process of decision making in recognising women’s rights.

Question 2

Over the past 30 years Malaysia has made significant progress. The education systems and government strategies have helped Malaysia to develop.

Poverty reduced from nearly 50% of the population, to below 5%
Under 5 mortality rate reduced less than 10 deaths in every 1,000 live births, a reduction of over 85% since 1970
Maternal mortality rates reduced from 141 deaths to less than 70 deaths in 100,000 births
Over 90% of Malaysians live within 5 Km of health facility
More than 90% of children are enrolled in primary school

This shows a positive change for Malaysia. With higher education levels women are seen to be participating more in the work force. However despite the fact that the work force has progressed in gender diversity, the participation of women in the administrative and managerial sectors is still relatively low. It is rarely often that women will been chosen to work in top places over men. The discrimination against women is still an issue and leaves women with little opportunity to work in the advanced sectors.

Figure 6 – Percentage of Women Labour in Each Occupation since 1995 – 2000

The table shows that from 1995 to 2000 many jobs have been taken in the production sector. However it also shows that the administrative and managerial sector has grown from 1.8% to 2.2%.

Many people have started to move from rural areas to urban areas in seek of a better life, with higher opportunities. The migration of especially men in urban areas from rural areas has brought more dependence for rural women in farming productions. The shortage of workers has given greater responsibility to the women. With a lot of work to be done buy fewer labour workers means many of the work has be untouched. In 1994, 30% of the rubber trees in the country were untapped because of the shortage of workers. With an increase in migrant workers it has brought a lot of competition for women in the plantation sector. However a lot of women’s labour has been displaced by the mechanism in irrigated rice cultivation. The machines that do the jobs instead have lead to a loss in work and income. On the positive side the government policies that encourage a shift of production to fruits and vegetables has provided work opportunities for rural women to secure their families. However the consequences of this are the pesticides that are used in these fruits and vegetables could have effects on women’s health.

Women represent 36% of the labour force. Both men and women work the same hours, however most women after working several hours a day go back home and do domestic work. Sadly, women greatly outnumber men in unpaid work, 64% women whereas 35% men in 1990. Mostly in the private sectors, women continue to collect lower wages than their male colleagues.

Figure 7 - Graph showing the decision makers in the public sector

By looking at the graph it shows that the top positions of the work force are clearly male dominated. Women are still a minority in top management levels. This lacks in the number of role models out there, it gives limited opportunities for other women. Yet the number of women in university outweighs the men, therefore there is a possibility that companies will have no choice but to accept women and realise they are as equally important as men.

Question 3: How does the environment affect the lives in Malaysia?

As Malaysia had experienced an extraordinary economic growth in the last 3 decades is has brought high standards of living for the majority of the people. The people in Kuala Lumpur and major tourist destinations can now enjoy a quality of living which is very similar to developed countries. While Malaysia has done extremely well in some areas there are still challenges that the Government is lacking in delivering healthcare and education to all. In Sarawak and Sabah for example, ethnic minorities are situated in distant areas of Borneo’s rainforest where mountains and rivers are dividing villages from schools and modern services. It is tough for the families who live in these villages as not everyone is able to access the benefits of modernisation. The wealthiest 20% of Malaysians control 53.8% of the wealth whereas the poorest 20% of the population controls only 4.5 percent of wealth.

Once the country started to modernise, Malaysians living in urban areas has increased from 27% in1970 to 62% in 2000.Forms of poverty started to appear; both urban and rural. After the time of the independence, Malays had migrated to the cities. Arguably, the monthly income is not enough to be able to support a family of four to meet their needs. Roughly quarter of the population could not afford to live in descent accommodations and had to live in squatter settlements as it is more affordable.

A poverty reduction programme was introduced, where the poverty line had decreased from 7.7 % in 1999 to 5.1% in 2002. This shows a positive reduction. Elderly and disabled people got the opportunity to receive welfare support from the government.

In Malaysia, the poverty rate shrank from slightly over half of the population in 1973 to 7.8 percent in 1995. This means that if poverty reduction continues at the same rate, by 2003, there would be no one left below the poverty line of $2 international dollars a day.

This is mainly because the government is trying to increase expenditure on major anti-poverty programs to protect real spending per individual, specially targeting the expenditure for small-scale loans and income generated activities for the poorest in rural areas as well as improvements in welfare programs. Apart of that, the government also spent safety nets for the newly poor through urban micro-credit programs and provision of special skills training for unskilled workers. This progress in poverty reduction measured in income terms is mirrored by improvements in social indicators. Malaysia’s achievements in increasing life expectancy (2003: 70.6 years for male and 75.5 years for female) are particularly impressive.

Conclusion / Recommendations

Monitoring of the gender and development - Since 1988 Malaysia has been experiencing an economic boom. The high growth of the economy was achieved with almost full employment. This strong performance in growth has resulted in basic structural changes in the economy. Ever since the experience of the economic boom, there have been changes in the roles of employment. From the above data, it is evident that there are significant increases in the participation of women in the manufacturing sector and the work force as a whole.

Analysis of the of the many positive changes in the improvement of women’s health has lead to a greater amount of children with more access to education across all levels.

Now that shortage of labour has increased. It gives a stronger possibility for women who are unpaid to move to paid labour. With the greater amount of job opportunities and demands for both skilled men and women in the manufacturing sector. Moreover with a wider range of availability this strengthens the workforce which helps build a stronger economy providing more employment and attracting foreign investments.

As works with the Government and United Nations have been put into place for introducing new projects and programmes that look at decreasing gender inequality. This positive strategy will raise awareness of the situation and allow advancement of women to take place in the future and result in better educated women reflecting into a more economically productive community.

One of the most essential factors for the empowerment of women has been education. As today, there are more females than males in the institutions of higher learning education.

However, further studies should be put in place to identify problems and solution, for maintaining this industrial growth.

They should implement the role of sharing experiences, with one another through bottom-up development and having expertise to keep strengthening the environment and success of the many efforts that have contributed into helping Malaysia

The Government should be concerned with financial support. The greater focus on financial support would allow them to invest in equipment, technology and/or research and development. I suppose it is also important to have enough resources provided for the equality of gender and eventually, continuing to regularly update the progress of the gender financing situation which could have a positive effect for Malaysia in the long run.

If the government continues to enhance efforts, to further improve the status of women, then this might enable them to reach their full potential as they are likely to have more belief in themselves resulting in more opportunities of them being included in the process of policies and/or programmes.