Abstract
Female representation in politics is not unusual but the significance can be questionable. Women’s involvement in politics has been minimal in Malaysia. The improvement in the number of female representatives over the years has been surprisingly slow. Thus the political landscape is still a man’s world. Although the number of female registered voters is higher than male, women’s representation in the parliament fails to reflect this societal majority. The feminist perspective argues that deterrent factors to women’s active involvement are due to social construction and such a claim is supported when reviewing this phenomenon. Women are still viewed as the supportive group and unfit to lead the society. Despite the National Policy for Women that was adopted to deconstruct such double standards for women, the struggles for women in politics are tremendous. This research applies the qualitative method to examine women and politics. Secondary data is gathered to challenge the claim that the National Policy for women has empowered women in politics. This article examines the meaning of social construction and deconstruction mechanisms that are unable to boost women’s participation in politics. Overall, women are certainly capable of carrying out political responsibilities but the miles to significant political participation are still far.
Highlights
The struggles that occur with regard to women are everywhere in this world. Khalid (2009) argues that the forms, issues, intensities and capacities of grievances may be diverse but women are facing a constant gender struggle for equality
Lee sought a declaration for her membership in Democratic Action Party (DAP) since 2001 to be reinstated immediately (FMT, 2013). Both Kamilia Ibrahim and Janice Lee were defeated in this general election, but their courage to challenge the Central Committee Members in their parties marked a strong dimension of women that are willing to stand independent though the consequence expelled them from being members to their party
Features such as a focus on power relations at various sectors of involvement, a concern for justice where there is a the need to comprehend cultural constraints and a desire to establish a contextual understanding of different cultural processes are a guideline for assessing how far the National Policy for Women has contributed to empowering women in politics
Summary
The struggles that occur with regard to women are everywhere in this world. Khalid (2009) argues that the forms, issues, intensities and capacities of grievances may be diverse but women are facing a constant gender struggle for equality. The UN played a vital role providing avenues and strategies for women around the world to work on improving their status in society. With this international effort, Malaysia has adopted the UN Platform of Action by establishing its first National. This policy is a mechanism to channel efforts, energy and materials to improve women’s participation and to empower them This policy and its platform of action have been referred to as a guideline when assessing women’s participation in all sectors including politics, the economy and society. A policy provides the vision to pursue justice and equality through fundamentally championing women’s voices and actions. The traditional fatalistic mindset of gender stereotyping is still very present and damaging
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