PETALING JAYA: Malaysian females thrive in classrooms, but struggle to find seats in parliament, according to our country’s gender equality scores.

Among Asean countries, Malaysia has the best score when it comes to men and women getting equal access to education, together with the Philippines.

But we were the lowest in the region for political empowerment and representation for women, based on the Global Gender Gap 2024 Insight Report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

To top it off, Malaysia also lags behind in Asean when it comes to overall gender equality.

We were ranked ninth out of nine countries in the region for overall gender parity, while the Philippines topped the list with the highest score at 0.779.

In second place was Singapore with 0.744, followed by Thailand with 0.72.

For Malaysia, we scored 0.668 – it’s the lowest out of the nine countries in Southeast Asia covered in the report, which did not include Myanmar as its data was unavailable.

Overall gender parity scores are derived from four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Below is a snapshot of how each country performed in these categories.

Click on each flag to see the details, with each country ranked from the best to worst scores for overall gender parity in Asean:

To improve our scores, Malaysia needs bold actions to help elevate women, similar to what our neighbours have done, says All Women’s Action Society (Awam) senior advocacy officer Amanda Shweeta Louis.

She said the Philippines has institutionalised gender equality through the Magna Carta of Women, a comprehensive law that mandates equal opportunities for women in all sectors, including politics, employment, and education.

“Singapore, on the other hand, has invested heavily in policies that support women’s participation in the workforce and leadership.

“This is evident in the White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development, which outlines a 10-year roadmap to foster an equitable society,” she said.

As such, both countries treat gender equality as a national priority, not an afterthought, Amanda added.

“Malaysia must do the same, we need bold policies, legal reforms, and active measures to ensure women are represented and empowered at every level,” she said.

Within Southeast Asia, here’s how we stacked up against each other:

Top in education, bottom in politics

Despite Malaysia being ranked last in Asean for overall gender parity, we emerged tops, together with the Philippines, when it comes to educational attainment.

We scored one in the index, meaning that men and women in Malaysia have equal access in getting an education here.

But it’s a different story for political empowerment, with our country having the lowest score in Asean, at 0.068.

This means that the political landscape in Malaysia is heavily skewed towards men, with more men in ministerial and parliamentary posts.

Malaysia is not alone though, as all other countries in Asean showed relatively lower scores for political empowerment.

None of the nine countries in Asean scored above 0.5 when it comes to gender parity in this aspect.

Here’s a look at how the nine countries ranked in the four areas measured:

On Malaysia’s low scores for political empowerment among women, Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) senior research officer Alicia Lee said it could be due to the cultural challenges that women and girls continually face.

“A 2021 study by the WAO found that 58.8 per cent of respondents are more likely to believe that women are less capable than men in political spheres,” she shared.

Concurring, Awam’s Amanda said the disparity in political representation was not due to the lack of capability of women, but a result of persistent barriers.

“Deep-rooted gender biases and unequal allocation of party resources, especially machinery and funding during elections, are some of these barriers.

“Media portrayals that trivialise women leaders by focusing on their appearance rather than their policies also contribute to sidelining women in politics,” she said.

Women in politics also faced a double burden of managing household expectations and their careers.

“To top it off, women still face sexual harassment in the form of disparaging remarks and offensive jokes made during parliamentary or state assembly sessions,” Amanda added.

Until such challenges were dismantled, she said Malaysia will not see the political landscape reflect the diversity of our nation.

While Malaysia has achieved the highest score of one for education attainment, WAO’s Lee said this does not necessarily translate into equal opportunity in other areas for women.

“According to Khazanah Research Institute, despite 52 per cent of women attaining tertiary education, only 66.6 per cent of these women are part of the labour force,” she said.

In national parliaments across Asean, Vietnam emerged on top with the highest percentage of women holding seats in the august House.

Some 30.3 per cent of seats belonged to women in Vietnam, followed by Singapore with 29.8 per cent.

In Malaysia, women only held 14.4 per cent of the seats in our parliament in 2020, based on data from the ASEAN Statistics Division (ASEANstats).

ASEANstats, which is in charge of providing statistical services to the Asean Secretariat, also showed that there was room for improvement in terms of the number of women in managerial positions.

The Philippines recorded the biggest percentage of women in such top posts with 53 per cent in 2020.

Other nations had less than 50 per cent of women filling up managerial positions.

Better or worse?

In Malaysia, our overall gender equality score has dipped from 0.677 in 2020 to 0.668 last year.

Only three countries in the Asean region showed clear improvements between 2020 and 2024, namely Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

See the trends in each country in the graph below, by choosing from the drop box:

On Malaysia’s declining gender parity scores, Lee said it could be linked to the lack of women representation in the nation’s top leadership posts.

“The Philippines has appointed two female presidents, and Singapore appointed its first female president in 2017.

“These milestones likely contributed positively to both countries’ performance in gender parity and encouraged greater female participation in the political sphere.

“This suggests that if Malaysia were to have its first female prime minister, our rankings might improve,” she said.

Moreover, having more women in these decision-making roles could lead to the development of policies that directly address gender-specific challenges.

Recently, The Star also reported that there was a growing pay gap between men and women in Malaysia, with women earning less than men in similar jobs.

For example, women with professional jobs like accountants, doctors, lawyers and teachers earned a median salary of RM5,046 a month in 2023.

But it’s 18.6 per cent less than the RM6,201 received by male professionals, based on data from the Statistics Department.

This situation is further echoed in a survey conducted by the WEF.

In the survey, respondents were asked “In your country, for similar work, to what extent are wages for women equal to those of men?”

Malaysia was ranked eighth out of nine Asean countries in the survey results, with a score of 0.719.

Singapore was the country with the highest score for wage equality between men and women in similar work, with 0.794.

This is followed by Indonesia at 0.755 and Thailand at 0.737.

Levelling the playing field

To further give women a boost, both WAO and Awam have reiterated their calls for a Gender Equality Act to be in place.

Amanda said such a law would be a pivotal step Malaysia should take to significantly increase women’s participation in politics.

“This Act must set a strong legal foundation that defines and prohibits all forms of gender-based discrimination in both public and political spheres,” she said.

Lee said Malaysia has to enact the long overdue Act, which has been renamed to the Anti-Discrimination Against Women Act, to broadly establish legal protections against discrimination.

“It is also vital that Malaysia increases its investments in women.

“For example, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry received one of the lowest budget allocations for 2025 with only RM3.6bil.

“As the ministry manages critical issues from women’s and children’s rights to specialised care, more resources are necessary to improve and uphold the protection of vulnerable communities,” she added.

But it’s not all up to the ministry, as addressing the gender gap cuts across all sectors and requires inter-ministerial collaboration for a more comprehensive approach.

“Allowing a bigger involvement from civil society and grassroots in decision-making and policy implementation in Malaysia is key to ensuring meaningful support for women and other vulnerable groups, leaving no one behind,” Lee said.

On the aspect of economic participation and opportunity, Lee said more family-friendly policies, such as flexible work arrangements, government subsidised childcare services and paid childcare leave, can reduce barriers to women’s participation in the economy.

“Implementing such gender transformative policies is a crucial step toward establishing a foundation for greater gender parity in our society,” she said.

In a recent response to The Star for International Women’s Day, Women, Family, and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri had said women participation in politics and decision-making roles was a critical area where urgent action was needed.

“We need more women at the table, not only to represent the diverse voices of half our population but also to bring about inclusive policies that benefit society as a whole,” she said.

To move forward, the minister urged for more inclusive workplaces that recognise women’s leadership and contributions.

She also hoped more could be done to encourage and support women to step into leadership and political roles, ensuring their voices are heard in policy-making.