Malaysians share the gender biases that need to be broken in Malaysia

It's time to #BreakTheBias.

March 8, 2022

Malaysians share the gender biases that need to be broken in Malaysia

The theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias, and if you haven’t already come across a number of similar pictures online, they have been urging people to take a photo with their arms crossed and pledging to break the bias.

Gender biases are everywhere; in our schools, our offices, and even our own homes. Across all cultures, it’s there, unconsciously or subconsciously buried in our minds. And while breaking the bias can be done, you have to admit it’s no small feat to fully overcome.

As there are variations in takes on gender biases across cultures, we thought of getting some of your ideas about gender-based biases in Malaysia to get a little insight of what Malaysians think.

A glance at Malaysia's situation.

Malaysia isn’t doing too well in the gender equality department, having ranked 112 out of 156 countries in the 2021 Global Gender Gap report. While we have certainly made progress in our view of equality, there's still a lot of room for improvement.

We still have many instances of shocking views on the roles each gender should play;
from women having to play a subservient role to their husbands to a surprising find that 51.3 percent of Malaysians in a study believed that rape is caused by the way women dress. And that’s just naming a couple of gender inequality occurrences.

We asked, you answered.

We recently ran a survey on Instagram and Twitter to gauge Malaysian’s views on gender biases in Malaysia. When asked if they have ever experienced any gender bias, 94 percent of Instagram respondents said yes, whereas 80 percent of Twitter respondents said no. That gave us a rough idea on how prevalent gender bias is among our audience.

We moved on to our next question:

What gender biases do you think need to be broken in Malaysia?

"The pay gap. Men's pay > women, regardless of career experience. Firsthand experience."
"People telling women how to dress ???."

"Women are too emotional to be at the managerial level."
"Gender pay gap."

"Wage."

"Gender stereotypes in Engineering and IT field."
"Glass ceiling in workplace."

A prevalent answer among our respondents is wage. In 2021, Malaysia scored 0.75 in the Global Gender Gap Index for wage equality. A score of 1 means absolute parity while a score of 0 means absolute imparity. While it is worth noting that gender equality in Malaysia is higher compared to other Asian countries, Malaysia has one of the biggest gender gaps in Southeast Asia.

What can be done about it?

We prompted our readers further with the question of: "What can be done to break these biases?". Here's what you said:

"Have awareness campaigns that touch on inclusivity and equality."
"Open conversation and proper steps by HR."

"Education."

Can the gender gap actually be closed? Admittedly, the Global Gender Gap Index has said that it will take an estimated 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide, with South Asia having a rough estimate of 195.4 years when looked at individually.

Yeah, that may not sound very hopeful. But it has to start somewhere, somehow. As our respondents said, education and awareness play a big role in overcoming these gender biases we see on a daily basis. And of course, it all boils down to the individual. So, the question here, really, is are you going to step up to the plate to break the bias?