PETALING JAYA: Despite seeing a boost in its global gender parity scores, Malaysia remained the lowest-ranked country in South-East Asia for a second consecutive year.
Our nation was ranked 108th out of 148 countries globally last year - up six spots from 114th place in 2024, according to the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum.
In 2024, we were also ranked the lowest in Asean.
Countries with the best gender equality scores in the region last year were the Philippines, followed by Singapore and Thailand, as shown in the graph below:
More work to be done
The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, when contacted, said Malaysia has made meaningful progress, but recognised that there was more to be done.
It said it was working towards strengthening areas where Malaysia’s performance had declined – specifically education attainment as well as health and survival.
“We welcome Malaysia’s improvement in gender parity, which reflects encouraging progress in strengthening women’s economic participation and leadership,” the ministry told The Star.
It said Malaysia’s higher ranking was driven by the spike in scores for the economic participation and opportunity aspect in the report.
“This has been supported by a steady increase in women’s average monthly salaries and higher representation in decision-making roles within the public sector and government-linked companies,” the ministry said.
The mean monthly salary for women grew from RM3,311 in 2023 to RM3,499 in 2024, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Educational attainment measures the gap between men and women regarding current access to education.
Health and survival is the difference between women’s and men’s health, including the estimated number of years they can expect to live in good health by factoring in years lost to violence, disease, malnutrition and other factors.
Two other aspects that influence the overall score are economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment.
Here’s a closer look at how Malaysia scored in these dimensions over the years:
Address the “stubborn” gaps
Women rights groups were optimistic about the higher overall ranking, but felt there was a need to address “stubborn” gaps affecting women.
This includes unequal societal expectations of women to care for families while working and the wage gap between men and women.
All Women’s Action Society capacity-building director Jayamalar Samuel said it was a really good sign to see Malaysia follow the general trend of countries closing the gender gap.
There has also been improved political empowerment - the percentage of women in ministerial positions has increased from 7.41% in 2024 to 11.11% last year.
However, she said Malaysia’s improved ranking does not tell the full picture.
“Despite the increased average income for women, the wage gap between men and women continues to widen.
“According to DOSM, male workers in formal employment still earn RM100 more on average compared to women,” said Jayamalar.
The number of firms with majority female ownership also decreased, as seen in the chart below:
Malaysians also felt that women have fewer chances than men to rise to leadership in companies, according to data from a survey in the report.
Respondents were asked to what extent companies provide women with the same opportunities as men to rise to positions of leadership, to which Malaysian women gave lower scores than past years.
On a scale of one to seven with seven being a great extent, respondents answered 4.94 last year, a drop from 5.35 in 2020.
Even as more women become leaders in Malaysia, Jayamalar questioned if women were truly supported once taking top posts given the inequalities in societal expectations of women.
“Women often face the double burden of unpaid care work such as cooking, cleaning, eldercare, childcare, alongside pursuing a career.
“Only with structural support and cultural change can there be true gender equality in Malaysia,” she said.
While the higher rankings do matter, Women’s Aid Organisation executive director Nazreen Nizam said gaps remain stubborn.
“What we need is to deliberately make space for more women - not only by setting benchmarks, but by ensuring women genuinely have access to opportunities, career pathways, sponsorship, and fair promotion processes.
“That means addressing cultural conditioning and gender stereotypes that still shape who is perceived as “leadership material” and who gets nominated and taken seriously in decision-making rooms,” she said.
Nazreen said the real benchmark of progress was whether workplaces are safe and supportive, care responsibilities are shared and supported, and whether women from diverse backgrounds can enter and thrive in these roles.
Equality think-tank Social and Economic Research Initiative (Seri) said the improvement in Malaysia’s overall score means that some strides have been made towards advancing gender equality.
“While current initiatives may indicate that the women’s labour force participation rate is improving, a closer look is still needed to address underemployment rates in states outside of the Klang Valley,” the organisation said.
Last year, the female labour force participation rate in Malaysia had reached 56% and the government is targeting to increase it to 60% by 2030.
However, Seri said the decline in education and health is concerning, as these two dimensions form the foundation for long-term gender parity.
“Malaysia, being relatively low compared to the other Asean countries, shows that others are advancing faster in closing gender gaps.
“We must learn about their policy effectiveness and implementation to stay on track,” the organisation said.
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