Comprehensive support system will help empower women — DPM

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said a comprehensive support system should be drawn up to help empower women in the economic, social and and political spheres.

Dr Wan Azizah, who is also Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said women’s development and empowerment agenda would not be effective if there were no awareness, support and inclusive participation of all parties in creating a balanced environment for women’s well-being.

“Women’s development programmes in today’s fast-paced global environment cannot be carried out in isolation. It requires collaboration among all parties to enable the skills of various sectors to be combined to produce more impactful programmes,” she told Bernama in conjunction with the International Women’s Day celebration today ( March 8) with the theme # BalanceforBetter.

Dr Wan Azizah said a comprehensive support system was crucial in addressing womenrelated challenges including the percentage of women in the workforce as well as the incidents of crime and abuse.

She said although 15.8 million of the country’s 32.6 million population were women, their participation in the labour force was still lagging behind the men.

“Although women’s enrolment in tertiary education is higher at 48.3 per cent than the men’s at 38.2 per cent, women represent only 54.7 per cent of the total workforce in Malaysia compared to the men at 80.1 per cent.

“According to statistics, women also receive wages and salaries less than men. So, more productive efforts need to be taken to ensure that women in the workforce are treated equally with men,” she said.

Dr Wan Azizah said the government was targeting to increase women’s labour force participation to 56.5 per cent by 2020.