Going beyond 12.5% women candidates in elections

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 570 candidates are set to contest 245 seats in the upcoming six state elections on August 12.

But among them, only 71 or 12.5 per cent are women.

Commenting on the gender disparity of candidates, Jamaliah Jamaluddin, Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) candidate for the Bandar Utama state seat, noted the persistent presence of a “glass ceiling” in the political field.

She said women in Malaysia continued to face discrimination with the perception that they were less capable than men. There is also the issue of gender stereotypes.

“Society conveniently puts us as someone who is supposed to provide in terms of family, and to support as a second role,” she told Astro AWANI. “That deters us from moving forward.”

Malaysia ranked 103 out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index 2022.

While an improvement from 112th place in the previous year, the report highlights that women’s political empowerment in the country remained low with a score of 0.102.

Meanwhile, Sasha Lyna Abdul Latif, Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) candidate for the Bukit Antarabangsa state seat pointed out the double standards in the field, with women facing greater scrutiny for positions of power compared to men.

“(In the state polls), there are seats where women (candidates) are going against each other, so we will cancel each other out,” she said, adding that this would lead to a wider gender gap in the final results on voting day.

Male-dominated politics, limited opportunities for women

Similar to many other countries, political party leadership in Malaysia is predominantly male.

According to Dr Zaireeni Azmi, Convenor of the Unit of Research on Women and Gender in Universiti Sains Malaysia, such an environment restricts women’s participation.

“Male political patrons continue to hold significant influence in promoting specific women to positions of power,” she said.

“So women receive less recognition, fewer role models and if they are fielded as candidates, it is mostly in unwinnable seats.”

Zaireeni added that the majority of political parties in Malaysia also lacked gender-responsive practices, such as the commitment to have at least 30 per cent women in leadership positions, in line with global standards.

For the upcoming state elections, PH has the most women candidates with 26 out of 138 people, followed by Barisan Nasional (BN) with 12 women out of 108 candidates and PN with 19 women out of 245 candidates.

MUDA has the highest proportion of female representatives, featuring 10 women among its 19 candidates. This makes up 53% of its total candidates.

Zaireeni commended MUDA’s strategy, as it could appeal to younger voters who support diversity and inclusivity.

However, she noted that it was a relatively new party and did not have any entrenched leadership structures. As such, it could offer more opportunities for women to take on bigger roles.

“In other words, women face less competition for established positions in MUDA compared to other parties,” she said.

Breaking the glass ceiling

To effectively ensure more women candidates are fielded in the future, Zaireeni called for parties to amend their constitution or implement a quota system that requires at least 30 per cent women representation.

“The Election Commission should also start to look into this and make it compulsory for political parties to have these policies.”

For Jamaliah, she said it was important for women politicians to hold their parties accountable in their efforts to promote gender equality.

“We (should) check what our parties are doing and whether they are really providing enough training ground, so that they don’t just put out women candidates to make it a sexy topic.

“At the end of the day, if you put them in marginal seats, it means nothing. You really have to empower them,” she said.

Sasha added that such training should go beyond party level to support women’s progress in politics at all levels of society.

“It is now 2023, we’ve moved forward so much and in terms of politics, it has to go hand in hand with that movement as well.”