In the 1995 Fourth World Conference of Women in Beijing, the term 'gender mainstreaming' became part of the mainstream development planning when it was highlighted in the Platform for Action (Hew, C.S, 2009). Hew argues, however, that gender mainstreaming has been around for far longer than that -- citing Boserup (1970) and Rogers (1980) in arguing that women have been marginialized from development planning and needed to be included in the framework in order for the development of society to grow.
In order for a nation to develop, both women and men need to be given equal opportunities and equal access to developmental resources (Hew, 2009). Since the establishment of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development in 2001, the government of Malaysia and relevant non-government organizations (NGOs) has worked to include women more into the workforce and advancement of society. But how effective has their measures been?
Statements of the problem
“Equal measures alone will not produce equal results. The CEDAW committee recommended Malaysia that ‘monitoring measures should be introduced to ensure effective implementation of efforts to promote change concerning the stereotypical expectations of women’s roles and the equal sharing of domestic and family responsibilities, including making the flexible work arrangements envisaged in the 9th Malaysia Plan equally available to women and men.’” (Baksh, R. and Harcourt, W., The Oxford handbook of transnational feminist movements, p.372-373)
“…I am disappointed that as soon as I step into the ladies’ coach (of the KTM commuter), the available spaces were filled by 20 men standing and sitting, not even caring about the presence of women in the coach” (complaint from a KTMB user, Koc khusus wanita dipenuhi lelaki, National Consumer Complaints Centre, 2012)
“…women were doing well in health and education but doing very poorly in labour participation rate. Female labour participation rate were 43.7% in comparison to men at 80.9% in the year 2004. Women join the labour force and drop out rapidly during the child-bearing and child-rearing years and do not return.” (Hew, C.H., Globalisation and its challenges to gender mainstreaming in Malaysia, 2009)
Review of the Literature
In her article titled 'Globalisation and its Challenges to Gender Mainstreaming in Malaysia', Hew talks about how including women in the development of society -- i.e. gender mainstreaming -- and giving them equal opportunities to developmental resources as men will allow for the development 'for the people' to improve and advance further.
Hew outlines that Malaysia has been a bit slow in working towards gender mainstreaming, with it gaining momentum only in the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005), with gender budgeting and provisions were allocated to five Ministries (Ministry of Education, Higher Education, Health, Human Resources and Rural and Regional Development) in 2003. The purpose for such is to ensure that gender information is integrated into the decision-making of policies and the allocation of resources in order to achieve gender equity.
In May 2007. the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development launched the Malaysian Gender Gap Index (MGGI), which Hew explains works similarly to the Human Development Index (HDI), where the index takes on the value of 0 when there is no gender equity present, and 1 when gender equity is present. It looks at four aspects: health, education, economic activity and the empowerment of women. This MGGI indicates that women were doing well in healthcare and education, but poorly in labour force participation rate -- female participation was 47.3% compared to men at 80.9% in 2004, with Hew suggesting that it is mainly because women rapidly drop out from the workforce during the childbirth and child-care years, not to return. As for the number of women holding positions of power, only 9.6% of women are elected in parliament, while in the senate, only 33.3% of them are women.
Aims and objectives of the research
Aims:
· To raise awareness among women and men of the incentives and provisions provided by the Malaysian government and relevant NGOs through animation and graphic design.
· Subsequently encourage women to empower themselves through these provisions and incentives.
Objectives
· To create an informational animation about the incentives provided by the government and NGOs and shown in the following areas:
o 1-2 minute infomercials shown in government offices and public transport
o 10-15 seconds as infomercials for television, shorter duration for Youtube ads
· To raise awareness among the community of the incentives and provisions provided by the government and NGOs.
· To address shortcomings and suggest improvements on existing facilities, incentives and provisions that may help in further empowering women in society.
· To encourage women to make full use of these incentives so that their lives can be improved further.
Research Questions and/or Hypotheses
o What are the problems present in current provisions and facilities provided for women today?
o How can we encourage women to fully utilize the facilities and provisions already provided by the government and NGOs?
o How can we steer discussion on empowering women through the utilization of these incentives?
Methodology
Reference:
Baksh, R. and Harcourt, W., The Oxford handbook of transnational feminist movements, p.372-373
