WILL Malaysia see a female prime minister one day?
In a survey conducted in 2020 by market research platform vase.ai, slightly more than half of the 1,000 Malaysians polled said that they would like to see the country led by a woman.
Generation-wise, the cohort of Malaysians who are most for having a woman PM are the millennials, with 53% saying "Yes" to the question, "Would you like to see a woman elected as prime minister?"
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Gen-Xers are split, with 51% saying "No" to a woman on top while the most glaringly opposed to the idea are the baby boomers, with 60% of the cohort saying "No" to having a woman at the helm of the country. Most of the yesses (68%) came from respondents in East Malaysia.
On paper, Malaysia could very well see a woman prime minister sometime in the future as there is nothing in the Federal Constitution that bars women from helming the country's executive leadership.
A decade ago, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told an audience of largely women that "we can't prevent a woman from holding that post" in Malaysia's parliamentary democracy and that "the voices of the majority counts", he had said at the Women Extraordinaire Forum (WEF) in 2014.
Current Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Zahid Hamidi has also gone on record saying (in 2018) something similar, that "any qualified person, regardless of gender" can be prime minister when asked if a woman would ever ascend to the post.
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However, both male statesmen failed to acknowledge the many barriers women face in the political arena that pose a problem to them rising to the top post, from patriarchal party systems to gender and social norms that disregard the important role women play in politics.
In their 1998 paper "Trends and Forms of Women's Participation in Politics", researchers Prof Dr Rashila Ramli and Saliha Hassan cited the five main barriers women in politics face: Social discrimination on women’s roles in the public domain, time constraints due to career and domestic demands, cultural and religious arguments that a woman’s place is in the home, structural constraints within each political party that do not allow women to advance beyond a certain level, as well as a lack of adequate resources in organisational support, personal influence and finance.
Close to three decades later, these same barriers continue to impede women's participation in politics.
To really see gender parity in politics, the barriers need to be stripped away, says political science and gender studies researcher, Nur Adilla.
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"Malaysia can, and will, have a female prime minister," says Nur Adilla, who is currently pursuing her PhD in Gender Studies at Waseda University, Japan. "And, we should. However, in every mainstream political party in Malaysia, women are 'confined' to the women's wing of the respective parties. Women are seen as leaders but only among other women, not men.
"There is a strong refusal by men, who currently hold the power, to even acknowledge the discrimination against women in politics. And, when there is no recognition, there is no solution," says Nur Adilla.
Political science researcher Hazman Baharom adds that in Malaysian politics, women leaders tend to be relegated to policymaking in more "soft/feminine" areas such as issues related to "women and children", based on the assumption that these are the "domains" that women can lead in as opposed to more "masculine" portfolios like finance, foreign affairs or the economy, let alone the premiership.
The dismal representation of women in Malaysia’s politics is clearly recorded in the latest Global Gender Gap Index 2023 which ranked us at 102 out of 146 countries in the world with a score of 0.682. While women’s achievement in the Educational Attainment sub-index was on par with men (with a score of 1 compared to 0.995 in 2022 – a score of 1 means that equality has been attained), political empowerment recorded the lowest score of 0.098 (dropping further from 0.102 in 2022), showing that women are badly lagging behind men in the political arena.
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Increasing women’s representation in politics not only recognises the value of women as an important political group with a say in decision-making processes, it acknowledges the voices of half the electorate.
Weeding out sexism
"The reality is that women in politics are viewed as those who can get things done – we are recognised as being capable, but just not as leaders.
"Why? The truth is that most political parties are deeply patriarchal.
Nur Dinie Fadil, Puteri Umno (Kuala Pilah Division) information chief agrees, adding that deeply-rooted misogynistic beliefs about gender roles as well as how women should behave and what they shouldn't be allowed to do with their lives must be weeded out, she says.
"As a new mum, I too have experienced this sexism after I delivered my baby last year. People began questioning my ability to balance my role as a mother while being in politics. The implication is that I should be looking after my child. These assigned gender roles need to change, and we need to talk about and challenge this more," she says.
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Women candidates (who are fielded to stand in general elections) are expected to be "perfect", says Low.
"We must be pretty and slim, not too young either. And, if you are in your 40s, you will be accused of not looking after your family. When I was contesting in the last election (for the Ampang parliamentary seat), I was 29 years old and I would constantly hear comments like, 'At this age, you should be getting married and having children', or 'How can you be the candidate? Politics is for men, you will cry' or 'You can’t do much'.
"Women are also trolled about their physical attributes and their gender. I was cyber-bullied too and made fun of because of my size as I was on the heavy side. Photos and videos of me were up on social media, poking fun at my appearance. It caused me to lose confidence and, after GE15, I stayed away for about three to six months and lost about 30kg.
"Having said that, women candidates who were slim and pretty were also body shamed or slut shamed. Women are constantly disgraced and humiliated, and like it or not, this will affect our self-esteem.
"The sad truth is that when the parties need a woman to fill a particular role, we women will be called. But otherwise, it doesn't matter how educated or capable we are, just because we are women, we will face discrimination," says Low.
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Bukit Bendera MP Syerleena Abdul Rashid says that she didn't feel that sexism when she was a state assemblywoman for Seri Delima in Penang or, prior to that, a councillor for the Penang Island City Council.
"The environment in the local council in Penang was very healthy. Maybe it had to do with the fact that we had two female mayors – Datuk Patahiyah Ismail and Datuk Seri Maimunah Mohd Sharif, which probably helped with silencing any misogyny. At the state assembly, too, I didn't feel it as I do at the federal level where I've had experiences where I'd been ignored, as have other women leaders. Politics at this level is still very male-dominated," she says.
Change starts with the family
Pas MP for Tumpat, Kelantan Datuk Mumtaz Md Nawi feels that confronting gender inequality is something that has to begin in the family. If there is no "complementing rights" at home in the tasks that need getting done, there will not be equality or respect in society or in politics.
She shares that as a child, she was always encouraged to speak her truth, just like her brothers.
"Maybe my experience is different because I come from Kelantan, a state where we were historically led by women rulers like Cik Siti Wan Kembang (a warrior princess in the 17th century) and Puteri Saadong (her daughter). So, it is a norm for us in Kelantan to accept women as leaders because we have had very good examples of women leaders in the past. My experience in leadership started in primary school when, in Year One (in 1979), I was chosen as the class monitor. My assistant was a boy and no one questioned why a girl was chosen over a boy in my school in Kelantan.
"It wasn't until I went to university that I learnt about gender discrimination when this issue was being discussed by students. I also noticed how some girls would stand back from leadership positions to give space to the boys. To me, this was odd because I grew up in an environment where the one with the best argument wins, regardless of their gender," says Mumtaz, who worked as a lawyer for over a decade before joining politics.
"And that is why I strongly believe that if it begins at home, there will be fairness and equality in political spaces, social spaces and everywhere else as men and women will respect each other based on their arguments and capabilities. Gender is just a vessel, what should count is what's inside," says Mumtaz.
Former PKR Srikandi chief Siti Aishah Shaikh Ismail's hope is for women to be respected and taken seriously.
"It isn't just to fill quotas or to be within a women's wing of a party. Women should have a fair shot at political leadership and we should not be discriminated against for any reason. I also hope to see more women bravely put themselves forward to be in political leadership positions. There is no reason to stand down or wait for opportunities to be given to us," she says.
"It may take some time for us to have a woman at the top, but if we stick to our values and principle and stay on course, we will get there," she concludes.
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