馬來西亞族群別婦女勞動參與之趨勢，1957-2000

Abstract

The changing role of women’s economic activities in developing countries is a topic of particular importance, not only because women represent a significant resource of much labor intensive industries but also because women’s ‘feminine’ qualities tied to the ‘almost exclusively’ tasks that only women performed. This study analyses changes in labor force participation of women based upon 1957-2000 census and survey data. In spite of these censuses, there are only a handful of empirical studies of female labor force participation by ethnic groups in Malaysia. Much of the past discussion has focused on the demographic, sex ratio, fertility and marriage status in the labor market. However, the purpose of this study was to find out the trends in female labor force participation by ethnic groups in Malaysia since independent. The feature of this study considered birth cohort as a useful methodology for accessing and enhancing the observing data. A birth cohort consists of all persons born within a given period of time, such as a calendar year. The study finds that there are different trends between the specific cohorts. Especially the elderly cohort has severe changes during the past decades. Coincidently, the trend of elderly cohort is similar to the Malaysia GDP. Moreover, the study has been lack of comparable time-series in ethnic groups. It is difficult to examine patterns among the three major ethnic communities of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, otherwise it will be possible to have a more distinctly pictures. There are three types of age patterns of participation by females labor force in the ethnic groups. The Malay group has a M-shaped, which have two peaks separated by a trough of lower rates in the central age groups. The Chinese group may be described as a “peak-and –shoulder” curve; the younger age group of 20-29 has an over 70% participation rate. The Indian group is identified as a double peak, mostly the early peak is higher than the late peak, but there is contrast in the 1997 year. Besides, the Indian group has an early retirement on age 49.