Rosmah wants women to become mentors, formulate gender diversity policy in organisations

As such, she called on the government to create a pool of gender experts to strengthen efforts to mainstream gender in both the public and the private sectors.

"I'm sure that the government has high hopes for women in decision-making positions to help achieve the national aspiration of gender equality," she said when launching the Women's Day 2014 celebration here today.

Also present were Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim and her deputies Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun and Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun.

Realising that women had been the backbone of the country's efforts in achieving the status of a fully developed and high-income nation, Rosmah said the government had been very responsible so far and had never neglected or turned a blind eye to problems concerning the wellbeing of women in the country.

She said the Malaysian Standard Classification of Occupations reported that of the total number of professionals in the country, 711,500 or 55 per cent of them were women.

"The rate of women's participation in workforce has also reached 53.7 per cent or 5.36 million in the second quarter of 2014," she said.

Meanwhile, Rosmah said the responsibility of a woman as a wife and a mother had expanded and became more challenging over the years.

As such, she called on husbands to play equal parts in ensuring the wellbeing of their families and good personality development of their children.