Govt to make working environment more conducive for women with young children
PERAI: The government is taking measures to provide a more conducive working environment for women with young children, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said yesterday.
She acknowledged that women with young children had difficulty concentrating on their work wondering how their children were getting on.
“We want to see how we can improve the situation. We must have cooperation among the three sectors – private, government and non- state – to provide for a conducive environment to empower women,” she said to reporters after delivering a keynote address at the ‘ Women in Economy’ Conference here.
She said the government had made it a priority to ensure that all agencies would have a day- care centre at their premises to enable women employees to concentrate on their work without worrying about their children.
Even though there were obstacles, such as the safety measures and the suitability of the building, the government was determined to make it happen, said Dr Wan Azizah, who is also the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development.
She said the government had set the target for all its agencies to have a day- care centre for their workers by January next year.
She also said that the government had set the target to achieve at least a 30 per cent women workforce in industries over the next few years.
It was much easier to achieve the target in industries driven by the private sector, she said.
“We want to achieve the 30 per cent target as soon as possible; then we hope we can go higher – about 50 per cent but we do have our limitations,” she said.
Dr Wan Azizah said it was also necessary for the government sector to increase the percentage of women employees to stay competitive.
In her keynote address, Dr Wan Azizah highlighted the need to have more women leaders in the private sector, especially in the decision-making hierarchy.
“We also need more capable women as activists leading the non- state actors,” she said.
She advised women leaders to maintain their femininity and work- life balance to excel in society.
“Looking back at all these difficult moments, I never once felt that I had to become dominating, bossy and to behave like a prima donna,” she said.
Dr Wan Azizah also said that the future development in Malaysia would be framed along the lines of the new era in Malaysia, which she termed as the ‘Fajr Doctrine’ or the new dawn.
“Now there is less restriction on the press and the politicians have to get used to being openly criticised by and through the media,” she said.
She said that above all, many Malaysians believed that things would get better.
Dr Wan Azizah said that with the new government approach to reducing poverty, greater focus would be given to employment and wealth creation through social entrepreneurship and other programmes.
“With this approach, poverty reduction is not just about giving welfare handouts a la BR1M,” she said.
The two- day conference, organised by the Penang Women’s Development Corporation, aims to harness women’s potential to achieve sustainable economic development. It carries the theme ‘ Rethinking Entrepreneurship for Today’s Women’. — Bernama