‘Disappointed’ women’s group calls for MPs to scrutinise 2027 budget through gender lens

 The All Women’s Action Society says the budget fails to adequately address gender-based violence, women’s economic participation, and unpaid care work.

The 2027 budget tabled on Oct 9 included benefits for women such as longer maternity leave for civil servants and tax relief for postpartum care. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

The All Women’s Action Society (Awam) has urged MPs to scrutinise the 2027 budget through a gender lens when Parliament debates the allocations in the coming weeks, saying they fall short of addressing longstanding issues affecting women.

Awam president Lai Suat Yan said the budget made some improvements, including extra aid for care work, better maternity leave entitlement, and upgrades to childcare facilities at government premises, but remained “largely a disappointment”.

Lai said the budget failed to adequately address issues such as gender-based violence, low workforce participation, and unequal burden of unpaid care work.

“Many longstanding needs of Malaysian women remain unmet, and this will continue to have implications for women’s rights, safety and well-being in the coming year,” she said in a statement today.

“Women remain far from achieving equality and parity and, therefore, Awam maintains that public budgeting must be viewed through a gender-responsive lens to ensure that public resources address existing inequalities, respond to the diverse needs of women and contribute to an inclusive and sustainable national development.”

Under the 2027 budget tabled on Oct 9, several targeted initiatives and benefits for women were included, such as longer maternity leave for civil servants and expanded tax relief for postpartum care.

However, Lai said the budget needed to provide dedicated and sustainable funding for survivors of gender-based violence, including access to support services, adequately trained frontline responders, counselling and long-term recovery assistance.

“With the recent cases in schools, the budget must do more to address rising violence against girls in schools, with clearer commitments to comprehensive sexuality education, awareness programmes, accessible counselling and effective prevention measures,” she said.

Access to employment

On women’s economic participation, Lai said structural barriers, particularly unequal care responsibilities, continued to limit women’s access to decent employment and financial independence despite their strong participation in higher education.

While acknowledging the budget’s recognition of the care economy, she said more affordable, quality community-based care services were needed, alongside stronger protections and support for unpaid caregivers.

She also urged the government to incorporate gender and disability perspectives into public spending on transport, housing, healthcare and social protection, with particular attention to rural women, low-income households, single mothers, migrant women and women with disabilities.

Lai called on the government to make gender-responsive budgeting mandatory across all ministries, with a public gender budget statement setting out allocations, beneficiaries, measurable targets and outcomes.

She proposed a publicly available gender budget statement outlining allocations, beneficiaries, measurable targets and outcomes, alongside regular reporting on how public expenditure addressed gender inequalities.

She said Malaysia could replicate the frameworks of countries such as Morocco, Rwanda, South Korea and Austria.

“Such measures are essential to strengthen accountability, assess the actual impact of public spending and ensure that commitments to gender equality translate into meaningful improvements in women’s lives,” she said. - FMT