Poor diversity in policymaking a roadblock to women’s empowerment

 

On International Women’s Day this year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that shorter working hours for women in the public service is being considered to enable them to care for families.

In an earlier Valentine’s Day comment, Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin urged Chinese Malaysians to get married and have more children to curb the declining birth rate.

Despite their good intentions, these policy suggestions could potentially worsen current economic and caregiving gender gaps.

Ideally, introducing care policies aimed at reducing and redistributing paid care (education, healthcare, social care and childcare) and unpaid care (babysitting, cooking, and cleaning) for women could create time and space for them to pursue their careers and other aspirations.

If done right, care policies could also unlock the role of men and fatherhood in care, allowing them to have an active role in their families and promoting the wellbeing of men, women, and their families.

However, our policymakers have taken a different path that could widen existing gender gaps.

Every year, the government reaffirms its commitment to women’s empowerment by striving for a 60% women’s labour participation rate.

This number has hovered at around 55% for years. Of all women staying out of the workforce, two-thirds of them did it because of housework and family responsibilities.

The evidence is clear that the gender gap in caregiving is deterring women from pursuing their career aspirations.

Yet, current policy responses to women’s empowerment seem to be misdiagnosed.

Rather than closing the gender gaps in caregiving, recent initiatives have focused on tax incentives and career comeback programmes. Among these examples are the Wanita MyWIRA initiative by the human resources ministry and Budget 2024 tax incentives aimed at encouraging women to re-enter the workforce.

The argument here is not to dismiss the need for these initiatives but rather to highlight that we are not addressing the root cause: the gender gap in caregiving.

To make matters worse, the recent proposal to reduce working hours and pay for women in public services may reinforce harmful gender stereotypes associated with care work.

It could also widen existing economic gender disparities as more women experience time-related underemployment due to increasing care burdens hindering their ability to work.

Furthermore, this policy direction places more financial burden on men to meet their family’s needs, potentially eroding their self-esteem, health and overall family wellbeing.

A closer look at this policy trend suggests that poor diversity in policymaking is affecting women’s empowerment.

The usual top-down siloed policy approach involving mostly well-earning male stakeholders is likely to neglect the intersectional dynamics of identities shaping the caregiving challenges faced by different groups of women.

On the other hand, this approach also restrains the wellbeing of men and fatherhood by locking in men’s roles as sole breadwinners.

To truly empower women and promote female labour participation rates, policymakers must adopt inclusive and intersectional approaches to understanding and designing care policies.

This is because gender, ethnicity, culture, education and income backgrounds shape how we balance care and work.

A high-income earner in an ivory tower who can afford domestic helpers cannot understand the money, time, effort and emotions required to care for families compared to a woman attending two full-time shifts as a working adult and a housewife.

Hence, including the diverse identities and experiences of women is crucial in developing effective and relevant care policies.

One solution is to revive the National Social Council.

Having a platform with the truly equitable participation of stakeholders from different genders, education, ethnicity, income, cultural and job backgrounds could ensure comprehensive care policies that address the multifaceted caregiving challenges faced by women and men.

This clear policy mandate, coupled with increasing budget allocation for care policies and infrastructure, could drive meaningful progress to achieve gender equality and social inclusion.

It is crucial to recognise that true women’s empowerment takes more than symbolic gestures and well-intentioned policies.

The road to an inclusive Malaysia requires effective policy interventions to redistribute care responsibilities that hinder women from pursuing their careers, as well as reshape norms and barriers for men to provide fatherhood and care for their families.

In the end, it takes both men and women to make efforts towards gender equality and social inclusion. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.